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THE 



SECOND ANNUAL REPORT 



MASSACHUSETTS ABOLITION SOCIETY 



TOGETHER WITH THE 



PROCEEDINGS 



SECOND ANNUAL MEETING, 



HELD AT TREMONT CHAPEL, 



MAY 25, 1841. 



BOSTON: 

DAVID H. ELA, PRINTER, 
37 Cor nhill. 

1841. 



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SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 



In presenting their Second Annual Report, the Executive 
Committee of the Massachusetts Abolition Society desire de- 
voutly to acknowledge the continued favor of the Most High 
in their efforts for the enslaved. The past has been a year of 
trial and of seemingly great reverses to the anti-slavery cause 
in this country ; but really a year of mercy and of progress. 
In no previous year, it is believed, has more been done to 
disencumber the cause of influences and obstacles that justly 
hindered its progress, and at the same time, to settle the abo- 
lition mind in respect to the great principles and methods of 
action both in church and state, whose adoption and vigor- 
ous prosecution promise most for the speedy and peaceful 
deliverance of the slave. In no previous year has the diffu- 
sion, in the general mind, of anti-slavery principles and feel- 
ings been more rapid or extensive. The conviction was 
never so extensive or so deep, as at this moment, that slavery 
cannot much longer live in this land. Indeed, the commit- 
mitte greatly err, if the conviction is not quite prevalent both 
at the north and the south, and daily becoming more so, that 
the time is very near, when, in some way, and by some 
means, a final blow is to be struck at the whole system. A 
multitude of causes— the providence of God — the progress of 
events in the commercial and political world — are conspiring 
with the efforts of the friends of humanity to beget and ex- 
tend and deepen this conviction, and to hasten the result. 
The days of American slavery are numbered. 

DEBT. 

From the report of the treasurer, at the last anniversary, 
it appeared that the society owed, in notes and bills payable, 
most of which had not then arrived at maturity, the sum of 
$1553 57. Besides this, it was stated that several hundred 
dollars were due agents, which, it was then supposed, the 
agents had pledges from friends of the cause in their several 



fields, sufficient when collected, to pay. In this state of 
things, had the committee been governed solely by a refer- 
ence to pecuniary considerations, they would at once have 
dismissed their agents, and turned their first and sole atten- 
tion to the removal of the debt. The state of the cause, par- 
ticularly the tide of political influence that was just then setting 
in upon it, and threatening to sweep away all practical regard 
for the slave, in the use of the elective franchise, with other 
considerations, seemed to the committee to require that this 
should not be done. They did, however, commence at once 
such a curtailment of their operations as they thought the 
interests of the cause allowed. In doing so, they dismissed 
a part of their agents. Others whose term of service expired, 
they did not re-appoint. In so doing, however, it was found 
that the pledges referred to, did not cover the amount due 
them. The same was found to be true in respect to others 
who were continued in the field. In this way the committee 
found their debt to be increased to nearly ^3000. During 
the year, therefore, the committee have had to sustain the 
paper of the society, which has at no time sustained itself, 
and which, in consequence of the political whirlwind reducing 
its number of subscribers, has been a heavier burden upon 
the treasury, than ever before ; to sustain several agents in 
the field, and to do what could be done toward the reductiou 
of the debt. 

The receipts for the year, in loans, donations, and receipts 
for the paper, have been $9,959 70 ; the expenditures $9914. 

The service performed by the several agents, amounts in 
all to 7 1-2 years. The debt of the society, it will be seen, 
has not been diminished, but rather increased. The com- 
mittee are not disheartened at this, nor should their friends 
be. Other benevolent institutions have been, and still are, in 
the same condition. At the same time, the committee feel 
that the time has come when this debt should be swept off, 
and the society set free from embarrassment. They know 
there is ability among their friends to do it ; they trust there 
will be a readiness to do it. A beginning has been made. 
Already we have a subscription of $1900, on condition that 
the sum of $4000 be raised within two months. 

THE MASS, FEMALE EMANCIPATION SOCIETY 

Deserves a notice in this place. This society was formed 
April 10, 1840. It has steadily increased in numbers and 
interest, and has enrolled between two and three hundred 
members. 



It has raised during the past year about $1400, chiefly 
through the instrumentality of fairs held in different towns in 
the state. $800 of this sum was raised by the fair held in 
Boston. The society are unanimous in the opinion that the 
method of raising funds by the instrumentality of fairs is one 
of great importance, and one in which more can be realized 
to the treasury of the parent society, than any that has been 
adopted by the Anti-Slavery women. 

The society intend holding a large sale toward the close of 
the present year, and the efforts of the members are now 
turned to this department of anti-slavery labor. It is hoped 
the friends of the cause throughout the State will remember 
this sale, and the importance of giving of their abundance to 
aid in furnishing the means of extending anti-slavery princi- 
ples throughout the land. 

The society is greatly indebted to the women of G. Britain 
for their liberal donations to the fair held last season, and also 
for renewed tokens of their remembrance at the coming sale. 

An extensive correspondence has been opened with British 
women which will no doubt result in great benefit to the 
cause of human freedom. 

A splendid liberty banner has been prepared, according to 
a vote of the society, and present to the town, (Berkley) in the 
tenth Congressional District, which cast the largest propor- 
tionate number of votes for the Liberty Party candidate for 
Congress. 

HISTORY OF THE DIVISION IN THE A. S. SOCIETIES. 

The Committee have long felt that a full and accurate his- 
tory should be given to the public, of the origin and pro- 
gress of the unhappy division among the friends of the 
slave in this country, and of the causes that led to it. The 
developments of the past year have increased their convic- 
tion of its importance, and encouraged them to believe, that 
the abolition mind in this country and abroad is prepared to 
receive and credit all the facts in the case — those espe- 
cially, which, as they implicate persosial character, have 
hitherto, from personal friendship and a regard to the cause, 
been withheld from the public generally, but which, though 
not the grounds of the secession, are yet important, as throw- 
ing light upon and giving meaning to those that were the 
grounds of it. The committee feel that such a history of the 
case is due to themselves, to those who, having been provi- 
dentially prominent in making the secession, have been the 
1* 



6 

special objects of assault and abuse by those from whom we 
have separated, to the friends of the slave generally, and to 
posterity. Such a history is the more important, also, from 
the many partial and erroneous representations of the facts 
which have been given to the public by our former associates 
and friends. Such a history, the committee directed their 
secretary, some months since, to prepare. Various causes 
prevented his doing it then, and entering soon after on an- 
other field of labor, he has been unable to do it since. As 
the best substitute which the circumstances now allow, he 
has grouped together a few of the facts of the kind re- 
ferred to. To these the Committee invite your special at- 
tention, and with the exposition of the case which these 
furnish, the Committee hope to he able to close this unwel- 
come, yet, as they believe, necessary controversy. 

The Board of Managers of the Massachusetts A. S. So- 
ciety, in their last Annual Report, say : — 

" Tlie position assumed by that (the Abolition) Society is one of nn- 
mitigaled lioatility to ours. By its managers, its official oRGAif 
and AGENTS, it has left untried no device to prejudice the public mind, 
and especially the religious portion of the coniniunity, against the State 
Anti-Slavery Society, and ourselves as its official representatives. All 
this h.is been done witii such a xoanlon disregard of trvlh, such a wide 
departure fioin the ground of anti-slavery union and fellowship, such 
palpable inteyit to gratify personal and sectarian feelings, that it is in 
the highest degree painful to contemplate such a developenieut of moral 
character." 

These are grave charges. They are made officially, by 
the State society and its official representatives. They have 
been repeatedly made before, by tiiose whose influence con- 
trols and gives tone to that society. They aver that the se- 
cession had its origin in feelings o^ personal and sectarian 
hostility/. Nothing can be more untrue. It is not known 
that any of those, who have been prominent in the secession, 
have fz'fr had the least personal difference with the indivi- 
dual, (Mr. Garrison,) out of hostility to whom it has been so 
often alleged the secession arose. It is believed that to this 
hour they are all on terms of perfect personal friendship and 
good will to that indiviaual, and that when they meet him, 
as they occasionally do, they meet as friends, with no per- 
sonal animosities whatever toward each other. At all events, 
this is true of the secretary of this society, whose alleged 
personal hostility has been the subject of frequent and exten- 
sive remark. Such personal hostility has never existed. 
Equally unfounded is the charge of sectarianism, as the se- 



quel will show. The charge that the " managers, official 
organ and agents," of this society have conducted the con- 
troversy with " a wanton disregard of truth," is a polite way of 
saying that we are all liars. This committee will not retort 
the ciiarge. Yet, when such a charge is gravely and offi- 
cially preferred, when it has received the sanction, not only 
of the general meeting, but of the cooler and deliberate re- 
flections of such men as Edmund Quincy, Francis Jackson 
and Ellis Gray Loring, and, with such sanction, has been put 
on record to go down to posterity, it is surely time to make 
known all the facts, whatever may be the results to personal 
character in return. 

CAUSES OF THE DIVISION. 

At the formation of this society, its Executive Committee 
were " instructed to prepare and issue at an early day an 
address to the public, setting forth our objects and reasons 
for separate action." In that address, the " causes of divi- 
sion " were declared to be the introduction into our cause 
of what is technically called the " Woman's Rights question," 
the departure of the old society from the "original doctrines 
and measures" of the anti-slavery associations on "the sub- 
ject of political action," and a serious " defect in regard to 
the composition of its business meetings." The defect in 
question practically destroyed the representative character of 
the society, and, as experience proved, enabled Lynn and 
Boston to legislate for the State. It was by taking advan- 
tage of this, that the action of the society, on the two 
topics named, was controlled, and the society carried over 
from the ground of simple and original Abolition, to that of 
a Woman's Rights and Non-government one. Lynn and 
Boston sent their scores of delegates, so called, to the meet- 
ings of the society, while towns more remote, with an equal 
proportionate amount of abolitionists, could send but two or 
three. Such was the fact at the meeting at which the revo- 
lution in question was elTected. Lynn had a delegation of 
120 present. Boston had a greater number. Of those from 
Boston, eighty were appointed by a meeting of seven mem- 
bers of a new city society, that had been formed with special 
reference to the then approaching meeting of the State so- 
ciety. This was in fact the appointment of nearly the whole 
membership of the society, as delegates. 

And what is worse, not less than twenty or thirty of these 
were induced to join the city society, merely that they might 



8 

be appointed as delegates to vote at the state meeting. And 
so prominent an individual as the Treasurer of the State 
society, was a prominent actor in this shameful proceeding! 
Yet each of the so called delegates, from Boston and Lynn, 
claimed and exercised an equal voice with those from remote 
parts of the State, in deciding the action of the State society. 
Nor was there any thing, in the constitution of the society, 
to forbid it. To remedy this defect, to bring the cause 
back to its original ground, that so it might be presented 
to the public on its merits, unincumbered by the extraneous 
and sectarian questions with which, in the action of the old 
society, it had been identified, were the avowed reasons for 
the formation of the new society — these, connected with the 
hopelessness of effecting any reform in the old society, were 
the avowed " causes of the division." They were its true 
and real causes. 

THE REAL " PLOT." 

In presenting them to the public as such, your committee 
have hitherto rested their defence of the case upon these simple 
facts. From a regard to former friendships and the general 
cause, they have been anxious, as far as possible, to spare the 
personal character of leading individuals from whom we have 
separated. It was enough, that in the action of the old so- 
ciety, the anti-slavery cause was, as a matter of fact, turned 
aside from its original character, and identified with other 
matters, and that the determination to turn it aside thus, from 
whatever motives, was, as a fact, deliberate and settled. 
These two facts the committee have ever regarded as ample 
justification of the separation. On their presentation as 
facts, have they hitherto rested their defence in the case. 
They believe, however, that the time has now come, and that 
the circumstances of the case are now such, as to require 
them to go behind these facts, and give the public some of 
the evidences, which have for some time satisfied them of the 
existence of a deliberate and well-matured design, on the part 
of those who have controlled the action of the former society, 
to make the anti-slavery organizations subservient to the pro- 
motion of their personal and sectarian views on the subjects of 
1'Vomcn's Rights, so called. Civil Government, the Church, 
the Ministry and the Sabbath. 

THE DESIGN DISCREDITED AND DISCLAIMED. 

It was a long time before those who have been active in 
the separation could believe in the existence of any such 



design on the part of individuals with whom they had been 
so intimately associated, and to whom they had been accus- 
tomed to look as counsellors and leaders in their efforts for 
the enslaved. When such a design, indeed, was charged 
on them, particularly upon Mr. Garrison, as it sometimes 
was, it was indignantly disclaimed.* Such was the fact at 
the time of Mr. Garrison's first assault upon the Sabbath, and 
at the subsequent period of the Clerical Appeal. In the con- 
clusion of the Sabbath discussion in 183G, Mr. Garrison 
said : — 

" Once for all, we beg our readers to be apsnred that we have not for 
one moment cherished the purpose either of being diverted from the 
special advocacy of the one great cause which we have so long espoused, 
or of making the Liberator the arena of a controversy uhich does not 
belong to its character or its object. Our Sabbatical animadversiona 
upon Dr. Beecher's speech were purely incidental, and quite subordi- 
nate to the main design of our review. * * We take our leave of the 
Sabbatical controversy, so far as the columns of the Liberator are concern- 
ed, merely remarking again that we shall not suffer ourself or our paper to 
be diverted from the steadfast and zealous advocacy of the anti-slavery 
cause. * * As the Liberator is patronized by persons of almost every 
religious persuasion, and chiefly because it is an anti-slavery paper, it is 
obvious that it does not properly come within our province to attack the 
peculiar tenets or ecclesiasticalarrangenientsof any sect. We shall stu- 
diously aim not to do so." 

And subsequently, in Jan., 1837, when it was proposed to 
have the State society assume the pecuniary support of the 
paper, Mr. Garrison referred to the same discussion in a sim- 
ilar manner, and added : — 

" The leading, all-absorbing object of the Liberator shall continue to 
be, as it has been hitherto, the overthrow of American slavery — not to 
conflict with aiiy religious sect or political party." 

DEFENCE OF MR. GARRISON AND OTHERS. 

In the full belief of the sincerity of these disclaimers, we 
were ready to defend him and others of kindred views, as 
members of the anti-slavery society. Our plea was, that the 
anti-slavery society, as such, had nothing to do with, and 
was not to be held responsible for the private opinions of its 
members on any subjects other than that of the abolition of 

* In Mr. Garrison's phrenological development, as given by Mr. Fow- 
ler and published in the Liberator, is the following: — 

" He generally keeps his plans and feelings to himself, and carries his 
plans into execution without divulging them. * * He has more fore- 
thought than he manifests. He has great literary ingenuity, and is full 
of new schemes and projects. He shows a great deal of tact as a writer 
and reasouer. He seldom or never commits himself." 



10 

slavery. And, giving Mr. Garrison the full benefit of this 
plea, the secretary of this society, then editor of the Emanci- 
pator, (Aug. 18, 183C,) said : — 

" We trust ihnt we love ihe Sabbath, and dissent from Mr Garrison's 
views on the subject as luuch as any one — but what then ? Nay, what 
if he were throughout a thorough Q.uai<er .' Must I therefore abjure his 
senlimeiits on the subject oi abolition, or temperance, or any other sim- 
ilar question, and refuse to co-operate with and sustain him in their pro- 
mulgation .•' Nonsense." 

And in so saying, the editor did but express his own and 
this committee's present as well as former views in the case. 
With the private religious or other opinions of its members, 
the anti-slavery society, as such, and we as members of it, 
have nothing to do. It is only when these opinions are 
thrust upon the anti-slavery platform, as part and parcel of 
abolition, and the attempt is made to model the action of the 
anti-slavery societies in accordance with them, that we have 
any right to complain, and the community a right to hold us 
responsible for them. Nor was it until this was actually 
done, and conclusive evidence was furnished that it would be 
persisted in, that remonstrance and resistance, finally issuing 
in separation, began. 

VIEWS AND FEELINGS OF MR. GARRISON AT THIS PERIOD. 

The Clerical Appeal controversy commenced in August, 
1837. In the progress of that discussion it became manifest 
that Mr. Garrison's heart was set upon other reforms more 
generic in their character, and, in his view, more important, 
than the anti-slavery reform. lie used fretpiently to remark 
that nothing thorough and efllectual could be effected for 
temperance or abolition, until we had had some more radical 
and generic reform. At tliis period he gave vp all hope of 
the abolition of slave?'!/ by moral and peaceful means. In the 
New England (convention, June 2, 1837, he said " he was 
led to fear that all efforts to avert the pending calamity" of 
the annexation of Texas to the Union " would prove abortive, 
and that our national destruction was sealed." (Lib., vol. 7., 

p. no. 

On the 4th of July of the same year, in a public address 
at Providence, (Lib , vol. 7, p. 123) he said he "stood forth 
in the spirit of prophecy, to |)roclaim in the ears of the peo- 
ple that our doom as a nation is sealed ; that the day of our 
probation has ended, and we are not saved. * * Nor form of 
government, nor representative body, nor written parchment, 
nor social compact, nor physical preparation, can give us 



11 

perpetuity, or hide us from the wrath of the Lamb. The 
downfall of the republic seems inevitable. * * If history be 
not wholly fibulous — if revelation be not a forgery — if God 
be not faithless in the execution of his threatenings — the 
doo(n is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. The 
overthrow of the American confederacy is in the womb 
of events. * * The corruptions of the church, so called, 
are obviously more deep and incurable than ti)o.se of the 
state; and, therefore, the church, in spite of every precau- 
tion and safeguard, is first to be dashed to pieces. ' Coming 
events cast their shadows before.' * * The political dismem- 
berment of our Union is ultimately to follow." 

On the 11th of August following, in reply to an invitation 
to attend a Peace Convention in Vermont, Mr. Garrison 
(Lib., vol. 7, p. 140) wrote the Rev. O. S. Murray as follows. 
" In giving my attention to the degradation and misery of 
two millions of American bondmen, I do not forget mankind. 
My mind is busy in the investigation of many subjects, 
which, in their full elucidation and practical bearings, are 
destined to shake the nations. The subject of peace" (by 
which he meant " non-resistance," so called) " is among 
them, and is peculiarly dear to me. * * 1 hope to be more 
deeply engaged in it by and by than I am at present, and 
unless they alter their present course, the first thing 1 shall 
do will be to serve our peace societies as I have done the 
colonization societies." 

On the 2d of October Mr. Garrison was at Worcester, in 
attendance upon the Massachusetts Young Men's A. S. Con- 
vention. At noon, at the house of Mr. Earl, Messrs. Stan- 
ton, Green and others being present, the conversation turned 
upon the merits of Thompsonianism. Mr. Garrison avowed 
himself a believer in the theory, and added, with much em- 
phasis, "law, medicine and divinity are the three great im- 
postures of the day." On the 13th of the same month (Lib., 
vol. 7., pp. 166, 167) he published a letter dated, '' Newark, 
N. J., March 22d, 1837," and which had therefore been on 
hand some six months before its publication was ventured 
upon! In the letter, the writer said, — "The present gov- 
ernments stand in the way of God's kingdom, just as Coloni- 
zation once stood in the way of Abolition. They occupy the 
ground without effecting the object. * * By the foregoing 
considerations, I am authorized not only to hope for i\ 
overthrow of the nations, but to stand in readiness actively ^. 
to assist in the execution of God's purposes. And I am not \ 
forbidden to do so by d^n) past order " (referring to the Bible) 



12 

" to be subject to earthly governments." * * " My hope of 
the Millennium begins where Dr. Beecher's expires, viz., at 
THE OVERTHROW OF THIS NATION." The Writer then de- 
clares, "God, by his spirit, has moved me to nominate Jesus 
Christ for the Presidency, not only of the United States, but 
of the world." He also says, referring to a former interview 
with Mr. Garrison, " You said your mind was heaving on 
certain momentous subjects, and you only waited to put anti- 
slavery in the sunshine before you turned your mind toward 
those subjects." Mr. Garrison, in an accompanying editorial, 
called this, "The solemn and powerful letter from Newark," 
and said, it " is in accordance with our views and feelings." 
These extracts make obvious what was well known to the 
intimate and careful observers of Mr. Garrison, at this pe- 
riod, but what was not generally noticed or duly weighed by 
abolitionists as a body. It was at this period, that James 
Boyle of Ohio, in his famous letter, endorsed by Mr. Garri- 
son, said, " I have observed of late, that you have become 
satisfied that moral influence will never abolish slavery in 
this country." Mr. Garrison had given up all hope for the 
slave from such means ;* his mind was laboring and his heart 



* And yet, when in October, 1839, it became necessary to issue a 
"Liberator extra," for the purpose of warning "the anti-slavery elec- 
tors ofMassachusetls," against lending any countenance to the " Inde- 
pent Anti-slavery nomination," then this same Mr. Garrison was fore- 
most and loudest in the outcry for " moral action," in distinction from 
political, as the sure and only hope for the slave. In the " address " of 
the board of managers of the old society, issued at that time, and to which 
his name is attached, Mr. Garrison, in common with the others, says : 

" [t (the formation of an abolition political party,) would be virtually 
denying the power of ?nora/ suaso/i a.aA eternal truth io overcome cor- 
ruption and prejudice. * * It is to be feared that some who bear the 
name of abolitionists, are beginning to lose their faith in truth, and the 
God of truth, <o cfes/)air of obtaining victory by the use of spiritual 
weapons, ( !) and hence their anxiety to go down into Egypt for horsemen 
and chariots. * * It will take but a very short time, comparatively, 
for the ' little leaven ' of anti-slavery to leaven the whole lump of poli- 
tics, provided abolitionists hold fast their integrity, and have fiiith as a 
grain of mustard seed. Both political parties will yet be compelled to 
do homage to the moral majesty of our enterprise, and be emulous 
to do it service, because of the great moral change that WILL BE 
wrought in public sentiment. Friends of the sighing bondman! let os 
never give them occasion to think, for a moment, that we have no abid- 
ing faith in the promulgation of truth, — anti-slavery truth, — to overcome 
their opposition. Let us ever speak in the language of victory, and re- 
gard their absolute subjection as a SETTLED EVENT." 

And this was the man, who, two years before, liad proclaimed it 
to the world, that moral influence would never abolish slavery in this 
country? 



13 

intent on those other great reforms, witli the idea of which 
he liad become intoxicated, and compared witli which, he 
more than once remarked, that tlie anti-slavery reform was 
but as a drop to the ocean. 

PRIVATE REMONSTRANCE. 

In this state of things, Mr. Garrison was pressed, by pri- 
vate and fraternal remonstrances, either to waive the pressure 
of his views in connection with the anti-slavery cause, or to 
come out at once boldly, and fling the banner of universal re- 
form to the breeze. The evidence of such remonstrance is 
is on record. On the 19th of January, 1808, (Lib. vol. 8, p. 
9,) Mr. Piielps in reply to a communication of Prof. Smyth 
of Maine, after making sundry admissions, said : — 

" .^nd does Prof. Stnyth exclaim now, that against these things, Bro. 
Phelps lias never felt it his duty lo remonstrate? A little pains to get 
light would have told him a difierent story. It would have told him, not 
indeed that 1 had carried njy griefs to the bar of the public in tlie form of 
♦Appeals,' and 'Protests,' and 'Voices,' in the belief that 'private 
remonstrances would be entirely unheeded,' but that I had sought my 
end in a more fraternal way. It would have put iiiiii in possession of 
the following, among other facts, * * that when ihe coiinexinn of the 
Liberator and the society first came up for consideration, Hro. P. ex- 
pressed his firm conviction, tlint it was, in itself, an improper one, and 
ought to cease with the end of the year; that on the other topics there 
has been private and personal reinonstrance, and that at times, on soma 
of these points, ' Uro. P. 's ' feelings have been very strong, and his re- 
monstrances very earnest." 

The editor of the Liberator accompanied the article con- 
taining these statements with editorial retnarks commending 
it to the attention of his readers ; but did not intimate that 
such remonstrances had not been made. Indeed so great 
was the dissatisfaction of Mr. Phelps with his course, toward 
the close of the Clerical Appeal controversy, that, on one oc- 
casion, after conversing on the subject at some length, he 
assured Mr. Garrison, in distinct terms, that he could not 
and would not sanction the course he was then pursuing, and 
that if he persisted in it, he must and should come out ag;iinst 
him. At the same time, Oct. 1837, he also wrote to some of 
Mr. Garrison's most intimate personal friends, stating what 
his feelings were, and urging them to use their influence to 
induce him to modify his course. Among others, he wrote 
to Dr. Farnsworlh of Groton, then and now a firm adherent 
of Mr. Garrison. In his reply, dated "Groton, October 27, 
1837," Dr. Farnsworth said : 

"Garrison will have a large party, and it cannot be otherwise, but 

2 



14 

there will be strife between the two divisions. Besides, woald not his 
power for doing iiiisoliief by ihe circulation of his sentiments on other 
matters, be greater than it will be if we keep with him, and surround 
him with our influence, which must restrain him to a very great de"ree. 
* * 1 know your regard for the anti-slavery cause, and have full 
confidence in your judgment and discretion to navigate safely in this 
dangerous sea. And allow me to believe, that the obstinacy of Garrison 
will not stimulate you to any sudden act which the circumstances of the 
times do not imperiously demand." 

John G. Whittier, in a letter to Mr. Phelps, dated " Ames- 
bury, 22d 10th mo., (Oct.) J837," said : 

" As to the Liberator, I have just forwarded to Garrison a letter in 
reference to the Newark Perfectionist's letter. 1 sent a resolution and 
a letter to the Esse.x County A. S. Society, (being unable to attend,) 
disapproving of the course of the Liberator in this njatter, but it was vo- 
ted down. I am anxious to do all that I can to preserve peace." 

Other individuals, ignorant at the time, of Mr. Phelps' 
feelinos, wrote him of their own accord, giving an expression 
of their feelings, and urging him to use his influence with Mr. 
Garrison, and announcing the fact that they also had sent their 
private reiuonstrances to Mr. Garrison. Among others, 
"Father Ward," so called, wrote Mr. Phelps a long letter on 
the subject, and as he was in doubt whether Mr. Ward in- 
tended that he should show the letter to Mr. Garrison, he 
wrote Mr. Ward for infortnation. In reply, Mr. Ward, " Oct. 
20," said : 

" As you express a doubt as to my object in writing you, I would ob- 
serve, it was not that you should ' *how the letter to Mr. G.' j3s / had 
previously ivrUten to him, he knew my views as to his course." 

Oti the same week, N. Crosby, Esq., now General Agent 
of the Mass. Temp. Union, and then resident in Newburyport, 
wrote as follows : 

" I sent, by yesterday's mail, a long letter to Mr. Garrison, which I 
wish you to read, and you will see what considerations I have urged up- 
on him. i have suffered amazingly from the appeal, answers, artack on 
Sabbath, clergy, &c., &c., and that so much of the Liberator has been 
taken up in resolutions, letters, &c., &c., to the almost entire neglect of 
the poor slave." 

Elizur Wright, Jr., writing on another topic to Mr. 
Phelps, on the 26th of the same month, and referring to the 
correspondence below, said : 

" I have just received a letter from Garrison, which confirms my fears 
tliat he has finished his course for the slave. At any rate his plan of 
rescuing the slave by the destruction of human laws, is fatally conflict- 
ive with ours. Only one of them can lead to any good result. Slill, if 
he would run up his perfect onflas:, so that abolitionists might see what 
they are driving at, shouting for him, he would not do us much hurt. I 
have conjured kirn to do so. Honesty requires it of him." 



15 

The remainder of the story in refrard to this correspon- 
dence with Mr. G., is thus told by Mr. Wrijjht, in a " Chap- 
ter on Plots," in the Abolitionist, Dec. 5, 1839; nor has Mr. 
Garrison ever dared to deny one of the facts here stated. 

Now lh.it our hand is in for thi* chapter, we will plead guilty to cer- 
tain anterior plots. VVe will go back lo liie hcginning — the/ons malo- 
ru/n, of all our plots. Jn the siinitiier of 1S37 we were vehemently 
ur<red hy .Mr. Garrison and Mrs. (-haptnan, to come out in condetnnation 
of a certain not ver3' powerful document, since known as the " Clerical 
Appeal." VVe replied, for substance, that we considered that docu- 
ment a personal affair, with wiiicli tiie Emancipator wis not called upon 
to meddle, especially after the Liberator had so fully disposed of it; 
but that if we did take notice of it, we should feel hound impartially to 
make a clean breast, and rebuke tiie Liberator and Mr. (iarrison for 
faults not charged in tiiat " Appeal." What these faults were, we at 
once plotted to make known to Mr. Garrison, by a correspondence which 
was kept religiously private on our part. On tiie first part of this corre- 
spondence, we cannot, at tiiis moment, lay our hands, but the following 
extract of a letter from Mr. Garrison, dated Oct. 23d, 1S37, will show 
of what sort it was. 

" iMv Dear Brother, — I am indebted to you for two long letters, to 
which, perhaps, I shall reply at equal length, at some leisure hour. The 
first — though written, I am sure, vviiii the most friendly feelings — excited 
iny .surprise far more than the Clerical Appeal; and, you will pardon 
me for saying, was as illogical in its reasoning as it was cruel in its im- 
peachment of my motives. Elizur Wright, Jr., never wrote that letter 
— some otiier spirit than your own frceborn, generous, independent 
epiiit, prevailed with you for the lime being, and made you indite that 
Gtrange composition," &.c. 

Though we were not sensible of making any cruel impeachment of 
motives in that letter, its language ceriainly was stronger than we would 
use about any friend, behind his back. We did not then consider it in- 
evitable that Mr. Garrison's faults should be discussed by us before the 
public, but continued to hope that by "plotting" with him, like 'a 
brother, he might be prevented from saddling his own vagaries upon the 
anti-slavery cause. What was the precise position we took with iiim, 
will appear from a subsequent letter of our own, dated IS'ov. 4lh, 1837, 
in which we read, — 

" Perhaps your ' surprise ' at my first letter would be less, if you were 
to reflect that, not believing in tiie doctrine of 'perfect holiness,' I arn 
not unprepared to see faults in n)y very best friends, and can reprove 
them without hating or despising them. W iiether such reproof betoken 
on my part a lack of freedom, generosity, and independence of spirit, I 
leave to the verdict of your own good sense. Sure 1 ain that there is 
little enough good in me, but my letter to you was dictated by my 
conscience, if any letter of mine ever was. My sentiments in regard lo 
your freedom of speech, you know from a letter more recent than those 
to whicli you replied. When the Anti-Slavery Society fairly stands 
before the world clear of all responsibility for the Liberator, 1 shall not 
charge it upon you as a sin against the abolition cause that you advocate 
in its columns your own religious views. You say, 'truth is 07;c, and 
not conlliftive or muliitiidiiious.' True, but the people are ronniitive. 
Abolitionists do not agree on many points not involved in their Declara- 



16 

tion of Senliments. Hence it is no more than right that the pappr whicfe 
is understood to speak liie cotiinion liiiigunge of all, sliould confine itseir 
to the subject on u hich all agree, or rather on which they do not seriously 
differ. If any brother has discovered what he deems to be important 
truth, heaven forbid that abolitionists should hinder him from the full 
developement of it, on his own resjto risibility. 

" But it does appear to me that xjour 'truth' — that human govern- 
ment has no rightful authority, does conflict with the truths of our 
Declaration of Sentiments, and especially with our measures. In our 
Declaration we maintain " that the slave ought instantly to be set frea 
and brought under the protection 0/ /((«',-" and that " Congress has the 
right, and is solemnly bound to suppress the domestic slave trade." 
Now here is downright untruth, if human government has no right to 
exist. And as to our measures, the discrepancy is still more glaring. 
We labor to bring the slave under the protection of government, youXo 
destroy the government that is to protect him. I suppose you will say 
that you would only supersede human authority by the establishment 
of the divine. Still our action militates against yours, for ours tends 
more thoroughly to establish the human government — the latter being 
never so firm as when the weakest are enjoying its full protection. Still, 
conflictive as are your truths with ours, theoretically, 1 have little appre- 
hension that we should receive any injury from them practically, if they 
made their home in their own tub — and that stood on its own bottom. 
What I should then most fear, would be that tiiey would suck ijou into 
a vortex of spiritual Quixotism, and thus absorb energies that might have 
shaken down the nsountain of oppression." 

Had we written such letters to any mortal on earth about Mr. Garrison, 
would not excerpts — all the blood and "murder" of them — have cer- 
tainly come "out" in Mrs. Chapman's last book.' But, some how or 
other, they have totally sunk out of her grand comjdotation, and her 
pages make up a face of the most wide-orbed surprise at the positions 
which H. B. Stanton and ourself have taken in 1S39 — as at laymen car- 
ried away by a sudden clerical plot and side wind. Just as if Mr. Gar- 
rison and Rlrs. Chapman did not perfectly know, more than two years 
ago, that other names besides the honored one of H. B. Stanton, names 
far more proniinently and worthily identified with the abolition cause 
than our own, had plotted this same new organization plot to their pri- 
vate ears — that is, had pressed upon them the doctrine which has at 
length made it proper and necessary for the new organization to exist! 
Cut they understand the power of plot. 

Rev. C W. Denison, then in Maryland, and one of Mr. 
G.'s earliest friends, remonstrated in a similar way about the 
same time. Other individuals did the same. But amid all 
the clamor in the Liberator, in Mrs. Chapman's books, and 
elsewhere, about "plots," and "treasons," and "detected 
letters," not a hint of these private remonstrances has ever 
yet been given, nor one solitary line of these private letters 
been printed! This single fact speaks volumes. 

THE DESIGN MATURED AND DELIBERATELY ADOPTED. 

These remonstrances all coming upon Mr. Garrison about 
the same time and from different quarters, effected a tempo- 



17 

ravy modification of his course. Nevertheless, his mind was 
" busy " and " heaving " with the supposed great reforms that 
in his imagination had ah-eady "shaken the nations." The 
circumstances of the case were peculiar. He was panting 
for the conflict with principalities and powers. His friends 
were remonstrating. They thought his schemes ruin, not 
reform. At all events, they were (luite sure that their advoca- 
cy in connection with the cause of the slave would be ruin to 
that; and tliey urged him, for the slave's sake, to desist, or 
else to quit the slave and fling out liis banner without fear 
and without disguise. What should be done? It was a 
serious question, but must be met. There were but three 
courses that could be taken. One was, to waive their advo- 
cacy for the slave's sake. That would have been generous, 
and would have evidenced a sincerity and fervor of devotion 
to his cause alike honorable and above suspicion. This was 
not done. A second course was to lift the banner of universal 
reform on independent grounds, and separate entirely from 
the cause of the slave. That would have been manly and 
honest. That was not done. The only other course was to 
push on the schemes of universal reform under the banner 
and in connection uith that of freedom to the slave. J'his 
teas done. If done in the sincere and heartfelt belief that 
thereby the cause of the slave would be most eiTcctually pro- 
moted, it was the mistaken policy of sincere yet misguided 
zeal. If done with the deliberate design of taking advantage 
of the anti-slavery cause to give currency to views that it was 
well known could not gain a hearing or stand a moment on 
their own merits, it was a treachery to the slave, as base as 
it was cowardly and mean. If done with such design, the 
natural and obvious course would have been first to consider 
and decide on this as the policy to be pursued ; second, in 
pursuing it, to seek to shape the anti-slavery cause to the 
principles of the other reforms; third, in doing this, to urge 
those modifications first which would be least obnoxious, 
and least likely to create alarm ; and finally, to bring other 
organizations and instrumentalities into the field to do that 
portion of the work which could not be eflected through 
the anti-slavery organizations and instrumentalities. And 
this, the committee are obliged to say, is just what uas 
actually done. The policy to be pursued was considered and 
deliberately decided upon : it was that of" sifting them in " 
upon the anti-slavery reform ; and it was chosen because, 
avowedly, the other reforms, standing alone and on their own 
2* 



18 

merits, could not get aliearing or make any general lodgemenJ 
in the public mind. 

It is well known that at the period referred to, when Mr, 
Garrison's mind was " heaving " with these other areat re- 
forms, so called, he had frequent consultations with some of 
his most intimate friends in respect to the course to be pur- 
sued. George W. Benson, his brother-in-law, Maria W. 
Chapm.an, the Misses Grimke, and otliers, were so consulted. 
One plan proposed was to give up the Liberator, or retire 
from its editorial care and start a new paper. Another plan 
was to make a formal change of the Liberator itself, and 
announce the fact that its leading object would no longer 
be the abolition of slavery, but generic and universal reform, 
including the abolition of slavery as a part of it. Another 
plan was to continue to hold out the abolition of slavery as 
the leading object of the paper, and then to " sift in " the 
other reforms, as the people could bear them. The latter, 
as appears from the following correspondence, was adopted. 

The Rev. Mr. Cummings, an agent of this society, had 
been told the facts stated in this correspondence, by some 
friends in this city. Lr the prosecution of his labors as an 
agent, he came in contact with a Mr. Whiting, an agent of 
the old society, and in the course of the conversation or dis- 
cussion, repeated the facts to him. He at once denied their 
truth, said he knew they could not be so, and that he would 
write Mr. Garrison about it. Weeks passed on, and nothing 
was heard, either from Mr. Whiting or Mr. Garrison. That 
there might be no apology for longer silence, if the facts 
were not as stated, Mr. Cummings addressed a letter of in- 
quiry to Mr. Fuller, through the columns of the Abolitionist, 
to which Mr. Fuller gave the following reply : — 

THE INQUIRY ANSWERED. 

Mr. H. Cummings : — Dear Sir, — I find in the last Abolitionist, a 
letter from you, addressed to me, of which the foiiovving is an extract: — 

" I have been very credibly informed, that some two or more years 
since, Mr. Garrison called a meeting of his special friends, in the Marl- 
boro' Hotel, Boston, among whom was yourself, and after reading Mr. 
J. Boyle's letter on non-resistance and perfectionism, distinctly proposed 
to inculcate and spread those doctrines. The medium tlirough which 
he proposed to propagate them, was the Liberator and the anti-slavery 
organization. The matiner was to sift them in incidentally, and press 
ihem upon the people as fast as they were prepared to receive them. 
The reasons assigned for such a course were, a new paper and separate 
organization could not be sustained, for the people were not prepared to 
receive such doctrines when presented in their fullest light, as they would 
be in a new paper, but if " si/led " into the anti-slavery organization. 



19 

they would drink them in imperceptibly, and thus would not be so of- 
fensive to thetn. The substance of the above facts I have frequently 
stated in public and to private individuals; and the genera! inquiry has 
been, ' why have not these facts been published ?' " 

Satisfied that the present state of the anti-slavery cause demands a 
publication of the fuels in the case, I do not feel at liberty to shrink from 
the responsibility of giving them to the public in answer to your inquiries. 
They are brit^fly these. Some two years since, Mr. Garrison received a 
letter from Mr. James Boyle of Ohio, which was subsequently published 
in the Liberator under the caption of " A Letter to VVm. Lloyd (iarri- 
son, touching the Clerical Appeal, Sectarianism, and True Holiness." 
The character of the letter may be judged of by the following extracts. 

" For your (Mr. Garrison's independent expression of your senti- 
ments respecting human governments, — a pagan originated Sabbath, 
(sun's day,) your wise refusal to receive the mark of the beast, either ia 
your forehead or in your right Iiand, by practically sanctioning the irre- 
ligious sects which corrupt and curse the world, — your merited denunci- 
ations of these sects, of the sordid, dough-faced, popish leaders, but 
above all, for your Christ-exalting poetry, * Christian Rest,' you are in 
my heart," &c. 

" It would seem, from the sympathy manifested by * Clerical ' men, 
in this country toward the religion and priesthood that were abolished 
in France, that they would rather have a religion and priesthood from 
bell, than none at all. 

" 1 have observed of late, that you (Mr. Garrison) have become satis- 
fied that moral influence will never abolish slavery in this country.* Of 
this I have long been certain. 'The signs of the times' indicate clearly 
to my mind, that God has given up the sects and parties, political and 
religious, of this nation, into the hands of a perverse and lying spirit, 
and left them to fill up the measure of their sins," &c., &c. 

In publishing the letter, Mr. Garrison said, — 

"It is one of the most powerful epistles ever written by man. We 
alone are responsible for its publication. It utters momentous truths in 
solemn and thrilling language, and is a testimony for God and his righte- 
ousness, which cannot be overthrown." 

Mr. Garrison had the letter on hand some considerable time previous 
to its publication, and read it repeatedly to individual and particular 
friends. On one occasion, before its appearance in the Liberator, my- 
self and several others were invited to meet at a room in the Marlboro' 
Hotel to hear it read. Mr. G. having read it, spoke of it in terms of the 
highest commendation — saying, in substance, that however unpopular 
its doctrines, they were true, and would yet be received by the people. 
That they were not now prepared for them — that if a new publication 
were started for the purpose of promulgating them, (a measure which 
he had under consideration some months before, and in respect to which 
he consulted some of his most confidential friends,) it would not get 
sufficient circulation to sustain it — that the abolitionists indeed, were the 
only class of the comnjunity that had been so trained to free discussion 
as to bear their discussion; " and therefore," said he, " as our enert)ie8 
say," (referring to the charge of Mr. Woodbury some time previous,) 
we must " sift it in " to the Liberator. 

This is the substance of what he said. The impression I received from 
it at the time was, that it was then his deliberate design to take advantage 

♦This was Mr. Garrison's opinion at that time. 



20 

of the abolition character of his paper to "sift' his peculiar opinions on 
other subjects, into public favor. As I had never before believed that 
Mr. (larrison had any such design, and had repelled the charge as a 
slander upon him, I was, of course, surprised at ihis avowal of it by 
himself. 

That he made what amounted to such an avowal I am sure from these 
facts. First, I mentioned it to .Mrs. Fuller the same evening. Second, 
^lp to that time tny confidence in Mr. Garrison'.^ integrily was entire and 
implicit, and fro/n that time it began to be shaken. And third, the col- 
umns of the Liberator have since been in exact keeping with such a 
design. 

I make these statements in answer to your inquiries, in no ill will to 
Mr. Garrison, but solely because I believe that the cause of truth and 
freedom demand it. 

Yours for the bondman, John E. Fuller. 

Boston, A'ov. 25, 1839. 

These statements liave been before the public, have been 
copied into variotis papers, and been repeated in private 
conversation and public discussion for nearly a year and 
a half, and to this hour Mr. Garrison has never said one word 
in explanation or denial of them. 

THE DESIGN CARRIED OUT. 

The design thus deliberately conceived has been steadily 
and perseveringly carried out by the two leading minds in 
the case, (Mr. Garrison and Mrs. Chapman,) through their 
subordinate agents and friends. As subordinates, Messrs. 
Johnson, Collins and Whiting, as agents ; Messrs. George 
W. Benson and William Chase, as family connections of Mr. 
Garrison ; Mr. Phillips, whose wife is a relative, and when 
here an inmate of the senior Chapman family, and Mr. 
Q,uincy, whose recent confession is, that for years he has 
played the hypocrite in regard to his religious opinions — 
these, as subordinates, have been specially prominent and 
active.* 

To trace the design in question in all the instances and 
steps of its development, would swell this report to a volume. 
The committee can notice but a few of them, as specimens 
of many others. 



* Mr. Q,uincy's confession (see Lib., IMarch, 1S41) is as follows: — 
" As for myself, I liad attained the views 1 now hold on the church, 
ministry, and Sabbath, before I knew of >our (Mr. Garrison's) exis- 
tence, I believe; certainly several \ ears btfuie 1 had any acquaintance 
with you, or knew any thing of your opinions on any subject e.xcept 
slavery. My error and sin (which I confess and repent) consisted in 
giving my countenance to them for a time, from a mistaken idea that ihe 
views 1 held were dangerous to be known by the common people, who 
needed a little jugglery (!) and legerdemain (!) to keep them in order." 



21 



THE WOMAN QUESTION, 

The first illustration of the kind is furnished in the manner 
and history of the introduction of the " woman's rights (jues- 
tion," so called. As was to have been expected, on the sup- 
position of the design named, this being the least obnoxious 
of tiie proposed modifications of the cause, the least likely 
from the circumstances of the case to create alarm and pro- 
voke resistance, or if it did so, the most easily to be eflected, 
was the first to be attempted. The New England Con- 
vention of 1838 was chosen as the occasion, and Oliver 
Johnson, the well known echo of Mr. Garrison's wishes on 
such occasions, as the agent for introducing the attempt. — 
For several years the form of invitation to membership and 
action in the convention had been " all gentlemen present." 
On this occasion, at an early period of the convention, when 
Messrs. Phelps, Smith, and some others, who from various 
causes had been more awake to the progress of things than 
their brethren generally, and would have been more likely to 
have detected and resisted the movement on the threshold, 
were out of the room, preparing business for the convention, 
Mr. Johnson brought forward a carefully worded resolution, 
inviting, not " gentlemen " merely, as formerly, but " all 
persons present, or who may be present at subsequent meet- 
ings, ivhethcr men or women, who agree with us in sentiment 
on the subject of slavery, to become members and participate 
in the proceedings of the convention." In the bustle of the 
moment, and not dreaming that this " was to be the first 
public act of a mighty reform," the difference in the form of 
the invitation was not generally noticed, and the resolution 
was readily adopted. Its adoption was received by the initi- 
ated with a burst of applause, as if conscious of having 
achieved some anticipated and mighty victory. The pro- 
ceedings of the convention on a subsequent day, opened the 
eyes of all to the meaning of the vote and the design of its 
introduction. At once a private meeting of the leading 
members of the convention, on both sides of the question, 
was called to see in what way the matter should be adjusted. 
The woman's rights men were resolved on retaining the ground 
they had gained, and would not listen a moment to the idea of 
reconsideration or compromise. Others who regretted the 
resolution and said they would not have voted for it had they 
been aware of its import and extent, thought that as the 
money of the ladies as members had been received and as 
the convention had proceeded so far on that basis, the reso- 



22 

lution could not be reconsidered without undoing all the pro- 
ceedings of the convention through the two preceding days, 
and therefore that the better way, on the whole, was to let 
the matter pass, and look out for the remedy the next year. 
Mr. Garrison at first refused to come nigh the meeting. He 
did at last come in a ^e\v moments when the conference was 
nearly closed, and all but four or five of the persons present 
had retired ; and after sitting a short time, remarked, with a 
smile of seeming exultation, that he did not see that anj'- 
thing could be done. Thus this fraternal effort at an adjust- 
ment of the matter at the threshold was sternly and reso- 
lutely repulsed, just as we should expect it to have been on 
the supposition that the initiated had made up their minds 
beforehand to push the measure at all hazards. From this 
point, the measure has been carried by the same persons and 
with the same pertinacity, first to the Massachusetts State 
Anti-Slavery Society, then to sister State and local societies, 
then to the National Society, and finally to the World's Con- 
vention, and there contested in such a manner as to show 
that William Lloyd Garrison and his associates crossed the 
great Atlantic, not to further the cause of the slave, but to 
take advantage of the slave's convention to test and give cur- 
rency to his and their Quixotic schemes of " women's 
rights." And all this, when the evidence is indisputable 
on their own confessions, that that public action of women 
in our state and national societies for which they have so 
strenuously contended, was never contemplated in the orig- 
inal formation of those societies. The evidence of such con- 
fessions is at hand. 

On the 11th of March, of 1836, the Philadelphia Female 
Anti-Slavery Society wrote, by their Secretary, to the Boston 
Female Anti-Slavery Society, stating that that Society was 
auxiliary to the American, and that, at a recent meeting of 
its Board of Managers, it had been proposed to inquire of 
the Executive Committee of the National Society, whether 
or not they would be expected to send a delegation to its 
annual meeting, &c. &c. The proposition occasioned some 
debate, and as they supposed the Boston society was auxiliary 
to the State or national, they wished to be informed what 
their "opinion and practice were respecting the sending of 
delegates to its annual meeting" — a strange inquiry truly, 
if the sending of such delegations, and the public action con- 
sequent upon it, has always been contemplated, and is in 
keeping with the constitution of that society, as originally 



23 

adopted in that same city, and in presence, too, of tlie very 
women that now urged it! The Boston society was not 
auxiliary to either of the societies named, and of course had 
no " /jractice" on the subject. A meeting was accordingly 
held to consider and give an "opinion" in the case. A ma- 
jority of the meeting were opposed to the measure. Mr. 
Garrison was then boarding at JMiss Lucy Parker's, and 
manifested great anxiety in respect to the result. The fol- 
lowing certificates will show what he said when informed of 
it, and what he then thought of the measure proposed. 

" I hereby certify th;it on our return from the meeting of the Doston 
Female A. S. Society, at vvhicii the opinion of the society was taken in 
rej^ard to the question submitted to it l)y the Philadelpliia society, !Mr. 
Garrison inquired wiiat we had done, and wlien informed that a majority 
were against the measure proposed, he said, ' / am glad of it, for it was 
never contemplated.^ Mary S. Parker." 

This is the Miss Parker that was, for several years, the 
President of the Boston society. Her sister says : — 

"The impression of the undersigned is that Mr. Garrison said, ' I am 
glad of it, for it would only make trouble.' Lucy Parker. 

"Boston, Jan. 14, 1840." 

Both these testimonies were given Mr. Phelps in writing 
at the date of the latter. They are both identical in fact, 
thoucrli not in terms j for why would the measure " make 
trouble,'" but on the ground that it "was never contem- 
plated?" 

On the 8th of March last, Mr. St. Clair writes Mr. Phelps, 
in respect to Mr. Johnson's confessions, as follows : — 

" A short time after the N. E. A. S. Convention of 1888, at which 
Mr. Johnson presented the woman question, he observed to me that you 
liad said, in a conversation with him " — (iliis was so) — " if the ftlassa- 
chuseits A. S. Society should take the same course the N. E. Convention 
had upon the subject, you and njany otiiers should leave it. 1 replied, 
then it must not be brought forward. lie said, it certainly would be. 
Then, I inquired, why not make the motion in tlte language of the con- 
stitution, inviting all '■persons ' to act, and leaving it to each to give liis 
own construction. Because, he replied, when the constitution was 
adopted, it was not contemplated that won. en should act in the public 
meetings of the society; and unless specially invited they would not. I 
inquired if he would push that subject if he knew it would divide the 
society- He replied, Yes; it w'ould drive off only such men as Phelps 
— the orthodox and the clergy would leave, and they could be very well 
spared." 

These facts need no comment. 



24 



THE QUESTION OF POLITICAL ACTION. 

A second instance of the development of the same design, 
is furnished in the attempt to modify the action of the anti- 
slavery society, in accordance with the views of the re- 
formers on the subject of civil government. The intention 
obviously was to prepare the way for this modification by the 
same silent and "sifling-in" process, that had done the 
work in the case just named. Hence the discussion was in- 
troduced, little by little, in the Liberator, great care being 
taken at the same time to reiterate the assurance that anti- 
slavery is still its leading and distinctive object, (Lib., vol. 8, 
p. 155,) and that " the discussion of the peace question in 
its columns, will continue to be, as it has been hitherto, 
merely incidental!" The impression was also studiously 
made that abolitionists were rapidly going over to the new 
doctrine, especially the most ultra and thorough of them. 

The providence of God, however, hastened the develop- 
ment on this subject sooner than had been anticipated, and 
before the leaders in the matter were fully prepared for it. 
Various causes combined, in the summer and fall of 1838, 
to call the attention of the abolitionists of this State and of 
the country, to the consideration and discharge of their duty, 
as citizens, in the use of the elective franchise. The doc- 
trine of the anti-slavery societies always had been that the 
use of that franchise for the slave was a solemn duty — a 
matter demanded not on the ground of consistency merely, 
but of sacred obligation.* 

* The doctrine of tlie Declaration of Sentiments, drafted by IVTr. Gar- 
rison, and put forth by the convention that formed the American Anti- 
Slavery Society, in Dec. 1833, was as follows; — 

" IVe also maintain that there are, at the present time, the highest 
OBLIGATIONS testing on the people of the fiee Stales, to remove 
slavery by moral and political action, as prescribed in the Consti- 
tution of the United Stales.'' 

" Political action " is here aflirnied to be a matter of " hipihest obli- 
gation.'" It and " moral " action are put on the same footing — that of 
duly, not o( consistency merely wiih one's professions. That tliis sen- 
timent had main and ultimate reference to the use of the elective fran- 
chise, is proved beyond a doubt. Some two years since, John G. 
Whi TTiKR, then editor of the Pennsylvania Freeman, said, — 

" We were a member oC that Philadelphia convention — one of the 
three constituting the sub-committee, which drew up the Declaration of 
Sentiments. No one at that perioil obji'cled to political action in its 
fullest extent. Our friend Garrison told us how the abolitionists in 
Great Britain were carrying their principles to the ballot box, as an ear- 
nest of what we shall be al)le to do ere long in our own country." 

Mr. Garrison has never denied this statement. Indeed, in the autumn 



25 

So soon, therefore, as the course of events called on abo» 
litionists to give expression to their opinions in resolutions 
of conventions and societies, tiiis was the doctrine which 
they every where avowed. Among other events, in conse- 
quence of successive defeats, the several contested elections 
in the fourth Congressional District in this State, came on. 

On the IJth of December, 18:38, preparatory to the elec- 
tion on the following JMonday, the abolitionists of the Dis- 
trict iield a meeting at Concord. Messrs. II. B. Stanton, 
A. A. Phelps, A. St. Clair, Francis Jackson, Wendell Phil- 
lips and William Lloyd Garrison, were there. Among the 
resolutions adopted on that occasion, and in support of 
which Wendell Phillips made a most eloquent speech, were 
the following : — 

Resolved, That we will not content ourselves witli simply staying 
away from the polls, and neglecting to vole for the candidates in ques- 
tion, but, Providence perrnitiiiig, will be at the polls without fail, and 
vote for some one who is true to the slave — deeply sensible that it ia 
quite as important, and as jmuch our duty, to be at our post, and 
vote for a good and true man, as it is to decline voting for one who is 
not; and that we earnestly reconuiiend to all abolitionists in the District 
to do the same. 

Rc>iolved, That the more effectually to secure tills olijeot, it be recom- 
mended to the abolitionists in e;ich town, to appoint a couiinittee of one, 



of 1S34, he virtually declared the same thing himself. In reply to a 
correspondent, who complained that he had too much politics in his 
paper, he (Lib. Dec. 27) said, — 

" HiiherJo, we have said little or nothing in reply to the hypocritical 
cant and lugubrious outcry which have been uttered by the pro-slavery 
party, respecting the ' political action ' alluded to in the Declaration of 
the National Anti-Slavery Convention; but in our next volume we shall 
lake up this subject, and tell slave traders, slaveholders, colonizationists, 
and all others, what we mean to do witliour elective franchise, towards 
breaking up the impious system of slaveiy. Ar that Declaration ivas 
penned by «<!, ice presume thai ice are competent to give an exposi- 
tion of its doctrines. One thing' we will say, in advance of our essays, 
that the isiJMEniATE emancipation of the slaves in the District of 
Colunjbiu and the territories, is to bo made a test at the ballot 
boxes, in the choice of representatives to Congress; and that no man, 
who is a slaveholder, will receive tiie votes of conscientious and consist- 
ent abolitionists, for any station in the gift of the people- — especially for 
the Presidency of the United States." 

This is a plain confession that " the political action alluded to in the 
Declaration of the National Anti-Slavery Convention," and urged n<5 a 
duty, had special reference to the use of the " elective franchise." Yet 
when this same doctrine was urged in 1838, it was resisted as an at- 
tempt to drive non-governmentists in general, and .Mr. Clarrison in par- 
ticular, from the anti-slavery ranks! The "essays " promised never 
made their appearance. 



26 

two, or three, as the case may require, whose duty it shall be Ic see 
that every abolitionist ia the town is at the polls, that he may there vote 
for the slave. t 



t In the National Standard of July 23, 1840, there is an " Address 
of the (new) Executive Coinmittee of the American Anti-Slavery So- 
ciety, to the Abolitionists of the United States." It is signed by James 
S. Gibbons, Chairman, and James C. Jackson, Secretary. It pur- 
ports to give a history of the division among the Abolitionists. " We 
have made this development," say they, "by order of the society, to 
the end that abolitionists, of this and of coming time, may understand 
the true causes of ihe alienation which has been consummated by the 
act of forming a new organization at New York." The docutnent is, 
throughout, one continued tissue of misrepresentation and of misstate- 
ment of facts. As one illustration of this, by no means the worst, we 
select the following: — 

" It is proper to observe that Messrs. Stanton and Phelps had the 
whole control of thai field " — (the 4lh District.) They put in nomina- 
tion t!ie Rev. James Woodbury as the abolition candidate, and circu- 
lated printed votes in his behalf. This step, we think, was in itself 
wrong. The abolitionists of the District generally, and the Massachu- 
setts Board in particular, at whose expense these operations were carried 
on, had a right to be consulted, both whether a separate nomination 
should be made, and if so who should be the individual selected." 

And then, as the motive of the nomination, the address adfis: — 

" Mr. Woodbury had been a distinguished sympathizer with tlie cler- 
ical appellants, was a friend of the national administration, and in this 
respect harmonized with Mr. Stanton, as he did with both Stanton and 
Phelps, in his sectarian attachments-'''' 

Now it so happens, that not a solitary item in the above statement is 
correctly given. lAIessrs. Stanton and Phelps did not have the whole 
control of that field; they did not put Mr. \Voodbury or any one else in 
nomination as the abolition candidate; no such candidate was put in 
nomination by any one; nor was any thing important done, in that whole 
campaign, without careful consultation with the abolitionists of the Dis- 
trict generally, and the Massachusetts Poard in particular. It was by 
the direction of the Board, as tlieir records will show, that Messrs, 
Phelps and Stanton gave their attention to that field at that period. It 
was by their direction too, that, preparatory to one of the trials, Messrs. 
St. Clair, Wise, Phillips and Russell, W(;re all sent, in connection with 
Messrs. Phelps and Stanton, to lecture in the several towns there. It 
was under their eye, and especially that of .\Ir. Garrison, and only par- 
tially at their expense, that the Liberators Extra and other documents 
were printed and sent into the field at each of the successive trials there. 
Previous to all, or nearly all of those trials, a convention was held of the 
abolitionists of the District. Those conventions — and there were at least 
three of them — were well attended, representatives being present from a 
large majority of the towns. Each convention decided for itself, and as 
the representative of the abolitionists of the District generally, the course 
to be pursued at the election then at hand. At none of these conven- 
tions was Rev. J. T. Woodbury or any other individual put in nomina- 
tion as the abolition candidate. The scattering; siiste?n was universally 
adopted. To facilitate its operation, the names of some five of the most 
jroiniaent abolitionists in the District, of both political parties, were 



27 

These are a specimen of the character of the resolutions 
that were being adopted at that time in all parts of the land. 
They affirmed voting for the slave to be a duty. This, of 
course, was in flat contradiction of the principles ofnon-gov- 
ernmentism. Nevertlieless, so obvious was it that they were 
only expressive of the doctrine of original and genuine abo- 
lition, that Mr. Phillips eloquently advocated them, and 
Mr. Garrison said not one word in opposition. This was on 
the 11th of December, 1838. A crisis was at hand. The 
" sifting in" process would no longer answer. Some bold 
push must be made, or political abolition, without one wore 
of controversy, would drive non-governmentism from thd 
field. At the annual meeting of tlie State society, within 
one short month after, that push was made ; it was to drive 
from the field that form of political action, which, recogniz- 
ing the riiiht of government to exist, affirmed the use of the 
elective franchise for the slave to be a duty, and to substitute 
in its place a non-government form, i. e., one that should not 
affirm the use of the franchise to be the duty of any one, but 
should sny, merely, that //' any one thought it liis duty to vote 
for the slave, and then did not, he would act inconsistently ! 
Accordiuiily, when Mr. St. Clair brought forward his resolu- 
tion, saying, " it is the imperious duty of every abolitionist 
who can conscicntiousli/ exercise the elective franchise, to go 
promptly to the polls and deposite his vote," &ic., it was seen 
that although it had a saving clause in favor of those who 
could not conscientiously do it, which the resolution at Con- 
cord had not, yet it contained the obnoxious principle — it 
affirmed it to be the duty of somebody to do it. 

At once the hue and cry was raised, that the presentation 
and passage of such a resolution was all a piece of persecu- 
tion — a deep laid plot to drive non-resistants in general, and 
Mr. Garrison in particular, from the anti-slavery society. 
And this hue and cry was led off by the very men, 7cho, one 
month before, at Concord, had advocated or silently acquies- 
ced in the passage of a resolution tchich ajjirmcd the same 



printed on a slip of p.iper and circulated, that eacli might make his own 
selection, and vote lor which of the five he might prefer, or for neither 
if he pleased. Tliis was all; and this vvasdone at the convention named 
above — Messrs. Garrison, Jackson and Phillips, as Representatives of 
the Board and luernhers of the convention participating in the deed ! 

The above is a f lir specimen of the general inaccuracy of the Address, 
and also of Mrs. Chapman's boohs, in respect to their representations ef 
the facts connected with the late division in our ranks. 



28 

doctrine, and had no saving clause whatever for consciniiious 
scruples. It was to no purj)ose that tliey were assured there 
was no such design ; that tliere was a saving clause for the 
sake of the very men whom they alleged it was designed to 
drive off. There was a plot and they knew it, and there was 
an end of argument and of reason in the case. Moreover 
they said that the resolution did affirm it to be the duty of 
somebody to vote, and they, as non-resistants, could not say 
that ; and so long as the society said it, it conflicted with 
their views, which it had no right to do, but was bound to 
modify its action so as not to do it. And so JMr. Garrison 
brought in his substitute, and the modification was effected ; 
the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society was made to aban- 
don its own original doctrines on the subject of political ac- 
tion, and become subservient to the promotion of the dogmas 
of non-governmentism ! 

THE MASSACHUSETTS AIIOLITIONIST. 

In exact keeping with the same policy and the same de- 
sign, was the conduct of the same individuals and their as- 
sociates in respect to the establishment of the Massachusetts 
Abolitionist. The repeated political conflicts in the 4th Dis- 
trict, concurred with various other causes to beget the feel- 
ing in many minds of the want of a new and cheaper paper, 
tbatshould specially urge the duty of political action, be adapt- 
ted to general circulation, and be the organ of the state soci- 
ety. The Board of Managers of the society had been fully 
apprised of the existence of this feeling. As early as the 
middle of November, Dr. Farnsworth of Groton, called at 
the anti-slavery office to see Mr. Phelps about what should 
be done in reference to the then next election, in the 4th 
District. In the course of the conversation, he of his own 
accord, said we needed a new anti-slavery paper ;, to which, 
without hesitation, Mr. Phelps responded. Dr. F. had sug- 
gested the same thing before, at his house, to Mr. St. Clair. 
He was indeed among the first to suggest and favor the mea- 
sure, though afterwards opposing it. On the occasion just 
referred to, he told Mr. Phelps he would go and see Messrs. 
Garrison and Johnson, and talk with them about it. He did 
so. About a month after this, on the 14th of December, the 
subject came up informally, in board meeting, and then Mr. 
Phelps stated fully and frankly what the feeling was and what 
the kind of paper that was needed, so far as he knew. To- 
ward the close of that month, Mr. Phelps being absent froia 



29 

the city, the Board took up the subject in form, of establish- 
ing such a paper. A coinniittee was appointed, consisting of 
Messrs. Quincy, Garrison, and Phelps, to consider and re- 
port upon it. On the 81st of December, Mr. Phelps being 
still absent, Mr. Q.uincy in behalf of himself and Mr. Garrison, 
made the following report. 

The committee to wliicli was referred the subject of a new anti-slavery 
paper to be the organ of the Muss. State ISociely, and to be conducted 
under its direction, beg leave to submit the following 

REPORT 

Your committee are given to understand that the want of an anti-sla- 
very newspaper, of a cheaper description than the Liberator, Einanci- 
pator, Friend of Man, &c., for gratuitous distribution by societies and 
individuals, has been icidelyfelt and loxidly expressed throughovt Ihe 
State. If such a want e.xist, your committee can entertain no doubt that 
it would be for the advantage of the cause that it should be supplied. If 
properly conducted, such a periodical would contain in a cheap and con- 
densed form, a great amount of anti-slavery reading which might bo 
widely disseminated by the local sucielit s at a small expense. i*uch a 
periodical, it is believed, would not interfere injuriously with the circu- 
lation of any of the larger sheets which are issued in various portions of 
our country for the promotion of the anti-slavery enterprise. A publi- 
cation not unlike the one proposed, has been lately issued by the N. Y. 
A. S. Society entitled the Anti-Slavery Lecturer. 

As the periodical which is believed to be demanded by the friends of 
the cause, must be in a great degree local in its character, and devoted 
to the peculiar wants of this State, there seems to ben peculiar propri- 
ety in its being sent fo) ih under the auspices of the State society. Tiiis 
Board moreover, will find it a convenient organ for the publication and 
recording of its proceedings and official acts. Us being made the organ 
of this Board, too, would give it an importance in the eyes of the aboli- 
tionists throughout the State, which it would want if issued by any 
individuals, of however iiigh standing in the anti-slavery ranks. The 
principal objection which your committee apprehend will be urged against 
this proposition, will arise from the expense which will attend it. 

The committee show that nothing is to be apprehended on 
this ground, and then add : — 

Your committee are of opinion that the arguments in favor of such a 
publication are of more weight than those which occur to them against 
it. They therefore recommend that the experiment be tried; and would 
respectfully submit the following details of the plan in the form of resolu- 
tions, which they deem the most feasible, leaving it with the Board to 
adopt or reject it in whole or in part. 

Res.olveil, 'I'hat it is advisable that a periodical be published monthly, 
under the direction of this board. 

Resolved, That the name of this periodical ho " The Abolitionist." 

Resolved, That the Abolitionist be edited by a committee of tliree 
members of this board, to be chosen by ballot. 

Resolved, That the Abolitionist be furnished to individual subscriberg 
at fifty cents a copy, per annum, only on condition of payment in ad- 
vance, and to societies or individuals for gratuitous distribution, at twenty- 

3* 



30 

five cents a copy, per annum, provided the number so taken be not fesa 
than ten. All which is respectfully subtiiitled, 

Edmund Q,uincy, for the Committee. 
Boston, Dec. 31, 1838. 

This report was accepted, and a committee of three ap- 
pointed to edit the paper, with directions to issue an edition 
of 3000 copies of a specimen number, to be laid before the 
approaching annual meeting of the society for its approval or 
otherwise. 

The report is the board's official confession (1) that they 
had been fully apprised of the state of feeling in respect to a 
new paper, and (2) that, in tiieir view, if established, there 
would be " a peculiar propriety" in its being their " oraan," 
rather than that of " any individuals of however high standing 
in the anti-slavery ranks." Let this be noted. 

The paper they proposed to issue, however, did not meet 
the viev/s of those who desired a new one. Mr. Torrey, 
having been informed of their action in the case, immediately 
wrote them, urging the necessity of a weekly.* Mr. Phelps 
also assured members of the board, and among them Mr. 
Garrison, that it would not meet the wants of those who de- 
sired it if it were not weekly. It was seen that this project 
would not answer. At once the whole system of tactics was 
changed. Instead of seeking to soothe and win the " malcon- 
tents," and " disorganizers," so chilled, the policy was adopted 
of forcing their submission, or driving them, as " insidious 
plotters," " traitors," &/C., (Sec, in disgrace from the ranks. 
The maxims of policy plainly were, "rule or ruin" — "sub- 
mission or death." The cominittee to issue the specimen 
number did nothing, and on the lltii of January, in an edito- 
rial headed "Watchman, what of the night ?" Mr. Garrison 
raised the cry of treasons and of plots. He said : — 

" Strong foes are without, insidious plotters are within the camp. A 
conflict is at hand — if the signs of the times do not deceive us — which is 
to be more hotly contested, and which will require more firnjness of 
nerve and greater singleness of purpose, (combined with sleepless vigi- 
lance and unswerving integrity,) than any through which we liave past to 
victory. Once more, therefore, we would speak trumpet longued — 
sound an alarm bell — light up a beacon fire — give out a new watchword — 
so that there may be a general rallying of our early, intrepid, storm 
proof, scarred and veteran coadjutors, at the coming anniversary — all 

* It is worthy of note that among all the plot-wise letters of Mr. Tor- 
rey that have been carefully gatliered up and printed, the two letters 
written to tha board at this tiine hive never yet seen the light of day, 
nor has a hint been given to the public, by the " plot" manufacturers, of 
their existence. 



31 

panoplied as of yore, and prepared to give battle to internal contrivers 
of inischief, as readily as to external and avowed enemies. 

* * ****** 

" With p.iin we avow it, there is a deep scheme laid by individuals, 
at present somewhit conspicuous as zealous and active abolitionists, to 
put the control of the antislavery movements in this commonwealth into 
other hands. This scheme, of course, is of clerical origin, and the prom- 
inent ringleaders fill the clerical otHce. One of the most restless was a 
participant in the infamous ' Clerical Appeal' conspiracy, though not one 
of the immortal five. The design is, by previous management and 
drilling, to efl'ect such a change in the present faithful and liberal minded 
Ijoard of iManagers of the .State society at the annual meeting, as will 
throw the balance of power into the hands of a fur different body of 
men, for the accomplishment of ulterior measures which are now in 
embryo. The next object is, to etl'ect the establishment of a new weekly 
anti-slavery journal, to be the organ < f the State society, for the purpose, 
if not avowedly, yet designedly to subvert the Liberator, and thus relieve 
the abolition cause in this t^tate of the odium of countenancing such a 
paper. Then make way f()r the clergy! I'or, by ' hanging Garri- 
son,' and lepudiating the Liberator, they will surely condescend to take 
the reins of anti-slavery management into their own hands. 

"The plot, thus far, has been warily managed, so, if possible, to ' de- 
ceive the very elect,' Many, we know, are already ensnared, and some, 
at least, who neither intend nor suspect mischief. The guise in which it 
is presented is one of deep solicitude for the success of our cause. No 
attempt is to be made to low<!r down the standard — O, no! — but simply 
to chanire the men to whom has been so long entrusted the management 
of the enterprise, and put in their place younger men, better men, who 
will accomplish wondt-rs, and [)erf()rin their duties more fiithfully — that's 
all ! While privately, by conversation, letters, circulars, Sic, &.C., 
every effort is making to disparage the Liberator, (the paper is too tame 
for these rampant p'ollers!) and to calumniate its editor, no hostility to 
either is to be openly avowed. Far from it; for honesty in this case 
miglit not, peradveniure, prove (o be the best pidicy. 

The trusty friends of our good cause, and all who desire to bafHe the 
machinations of a clerical combination, will need no otlier notice than 
this, to induce them to rally at the annual meeting, and watch with 
jealousy and trieet with firmness every attempt, however plausibly made, 
to eH'ect any material change in the management of tiie concerns of the 
State society. The spirit that would discard such men as Francis .Fack- 
son, Ellis (iray Loring, Samuel l-I. Sewall, Edmund Quincy, and Wendell 
Phillips, is treacherous to humanity." 

What is said of discarding stich men as Francis Jackson, 
Ellis Gray Loring, &ic., was purely jrratuitous. Such a thing 
had not been thought of. Mr. Jackson had said to Mr. Stan- 
ton that lie thougiit of declining a re-election to the presidency 
of the society, and in consequence, Mr. Stanton retnarked to 
some member of the Board that if he did, he tliought Hon. 
Wni. Jackson, the brother of Francis, would make a good 
successor. Mr, St. Clair had also suggested to some one, 
that he thought the Board ought to be enlarged, so as to take 



32 

in some friends of the cause at Cambridgeport and Lynn, and 
at the same time give the several religious denominations a 
fairer proportionate representation on the Board ; and behold ! 
a foul plot is discovered to revolutionize the Board and " sub- 
vert the Liberator ! " 

Such was the key-note given out for the annual meeting. 
The meeting was held, and lo ! the very men that three weeks 
before had voted to establish a new paper to meet the wants 
of the State, now insisted that none was needed ; they who 
then saw a " peculiar propriety " in its being the " organ" 
of the society, would not have it so now on any account ; and 
they who wished such a paper were told to start it themselves 
and not tax the society wit-li it, and were assured that if they 
did so, there would be no complaint or opposition. No 
sooner said than done. The paper was established, and 
lo ! another change. Scarcely had another three weeks 
rolled away, before the same men issued a paper of their own, 
of the same size but cheaper than the Abolitionist, and with 
the avowed design, first, of meeting the want in question, and 
second, of destroying the Abolitionist ! Such facts speak 
for themselves. 

THE CHURCH, MINISTRY, AND SABDATH. 

On the 25th of February, 1839, Oliver Johnson, having 
fully adopted the opinions and imbibed the spirit of Mr. Gar- 
rison, addressed a letter to the church in Middlebury, Vt. in 
which the following passages occur : — 

" It is, if I mistMke not, about three years since I esteemed it both a 
duty and a privilege to become a member of your body. I then believed 
that you were in reality vviiat you claimed, and still claim to be — a 
church of the IjOrd .lesus Christ, — and consequently, that I could not 
rightfully withdraw from you, except for the purpose of connecting my- 
self with another similar association. It is my duty now to apprise you 
that my views of the nature of your organization, and, indeed, of all tlie 
ecclesiastical organizations with which 1 am acquainted, have under- 
gone a radical change. I now regard them as mere human societies, 
which can rightfully exercise no powers whatever, except such as may 
have been rightfully conferred upon them by the individuals of which 
they are composed. That they have derived, in their associated capaci- 
ty, any pov^-er from the Great Head of the church, I do not believe; 
and hence, it is clear to my mind, that I may as rightfully withdraw 
from your body as from any other human society. * * * J readily 
concede that moral beings have a right to form associations (on princi- 
ples which do not restrict individual freedom,) for the purpose of mutual 
edification, and the propagation of what they believe to be gospel truth, 
but lo call such associations churches of Christ, I believe to be an 
assumption wholly unwarranted by the scriptures. Christ has but one 
church ia the world, and the members of the church are known, not hy 



33 

tlicir connection witli nny society fnrmed by men, but 'by tlieir fruits,' 
consecjuently a withdrawal from such a society is not a wiilulrawal from 
tlio church of Christ. It is ti)y full conviction, that Christianity has sutVer- 
ed, and is still suffering greatly from the cotiimon belief, that or<;aniza- 
tions which are the work of men, are churches of Christ; and 1 cannot 
consent, by remamiii^ a member of your body, to give countenance to so 
pernicious an error." 

Having tliiis given his view of "the iicdurc for the 
church organizations of the present day," he proceeded, as 
one among " other important reasons," why he felt called 
upon, by a withdrawal from their body, " to bear a solemn 
testimony against them," to state that, in his belief, they are 
" a mighty liindranceto the progress of Christianity — a block 
before and a weight behind the wheel of gospel reform." * * 
" When the corrnpt'ton:^ of these organizations," he adds, 
"first arrested my attention, I consoled myself with the hope 
that they might be purified and reformed ; but subsequent 
reflection, and tlie events of tlie ^g\\ past years, have utterly 
destroyed that hope, and forced upon my mind the convic- 
tion, that their oi'crthroir, and not their reformation, is 'reg- 
istered on the scroll of Destiny.' " i\nd he then formally 
"withdraws" from the church. 

These sentiments, it will be seen, assail the churches and 
their connected institutions, on two grounds, first their " na- 
ture,^' and second their " covriipiiuns,'^ upon both of which, 
it is maintained, they should be rejected. These, it is well 
known, were the sentiments and feelings of Mrs. Chapman, 
Messrs. Garrison, Benson, Quincy, and others of the initi- 
ated, at this period, and for some time previously. In the 
Reply to the Clerical Appeal, two years before, PJr. Garrison 
declared that the " great mass of the clergy " were " nothing 
better tlian hirelings, in the bad sense of that term," and 
that their " overthrow is registered on the scroll of Des- 
tiny." The same summer also, at Providence, he proclaim- 
ed, as we have seen, the speedy overthrow of tlie nation and 
the church. During the autumn following. Mrs. Chapman 
is known to have said to him repeatedly, " Your first busi- 
ness is to crush the clergy." Such, subsequently, have be- 
come the sentiments and feelings of Messrs. 11. C. Wright, 
Collins, Whiting, Pillsbury, Foster, and others of the leaders 
and subordinates in the movement. 

It is plain that persons entertaining these sentiments, could 
not seek the "reformation" of the ciiurclies, as their object. 
Such reformation would but perpetuate organizations, which, 
in their very nature, they regarded as " a mighty hindrance 



34 

to the progress of Christianity," and especially of "gospel 
reform." Tiiey had declared "reformation," moreover, a 
liopeless event. Of course wliatever they might do or say, 
in respect to the churches, tlieir object must be " overtlirow," 
not reform. Jluiirsti/ would have sought this object directly 
and openly : and to this end, would have gone back at once 
to the " natnrc'^ of the organizations, and calling that in 
question, waged its first and main conflict tliere. Dishonesty 
would have sought it indirectly and covertly : and to this 
end, would have taken advantage of the anti-slavery cause, 
to raise a hue and cry about "the corruptions of these or- 
ganizations," in order to break down public confidence in 
them on this ground, and thc7i, in due time, to call in ques- 
tion their "nature," or right to be, as such. 

The latter policy was adopted. In prosecuting it, the 
" sifting-in " process was vigorously plied. The ministry 
were special objects of attack. " Any thing to give the cler- 
gy a dab," said Oliver Johnson. "Wolves in sheep's cloth- 
ing" — "Hirelings in the bad sense of the term" — "The 
deadliest enemies of holiness, as a body, in the land," said 
Mr. Garrison. Such were the epithets continually heaped in 
rich effusion on them. They were the grand obstacles to 
reform. " The anti-slavery car has rolled forward thus far, 
not only without tiie aid, but against the combined influence 
of the ministers and churches of the country," said Mr. 
Johnson. (Lib. Oct. 13, 1837.) If they come into the ranks 
it is because the cause is getting popular ; or they are clutch- 
ing for power and mean to take tlie management of the 
cause into their hands, was the imputation constantly thrown 
out by Mr. Garrison. The churches also were represented 
as alike corrupt. In Sept. 1838 the New England Non- 
Resistance Convention came. With it came a renunciation 
of civil government, coupled with the declaration, " We pur- 
pose to apply our principles to all existing civil, political, 
legal, and ecclesiastical institutions." Mrs. Chapman com- 
menced the application at once. In the paper (Oct. 5) 
following the one that contained the proceedings of the 
Convention, she threw out some " definitions, the result of 
observation and thought," which she hoped might prove 
useful to any who are entangled in the weeds, that, spring- 
ing up out of the slime of ambiguity, impede a free move- 
ment through the waters of truth." The definitions made 
the "church originally" and 'voluntary associations" now, 
Bubstantially the same thing. The one was " a body of me-a 



lirawn together by the affections and sympathies ;" the other a 
body of men " drawn together by an agreement in principles 
of action, which tliey deem divine." 

The work went on. Anti-slavery lecturers of the " 7-iglit " 
sort were put into the field. Anti-slavery societies were 
summoned to the passage of resolutions, denying the Chris- 
tian name and character to the churches generally. Step 
after step was taken, until, at the annual meeting of the Amer- 
ican Anti-Slavery Society, in New York, in May IS40, 
after the division had taken place, Mr. Garrison presented, 
and the society adopted, a preamble and resolution, affirm- 
ing that " the American church has given its undisguised 
sanction and support to the system of American slavery," 
and therefore " ought not to be regarded and treated as the 
church of Clirist, but as the foe of freedom, humanity, and 
pure religion, so long as it occupies its present position."* 

* The position of the churclies and ministers has by no means been 
what it should, on this subject. At tiie same time tiiey have been, rela- 
tively, very far in advance of tiie State and the people at large. A 
careful statistical examination, njude by Blr. Phelps, gives the Ibllovv- 
ing, among other results. 

Taking the country togethei', tiiere is, on an average, 1 njinister to 
500 people. In the early anti-slavery conventions and meetings, of those 
who signed the call for the Maine, New Hampshire, and fust ISevv 
England Convention, in 1833 and 1834, more than one third were 
ministers; of the delegates present in these and the iNalional Conven- 
tion at Philadelphia the same year, more than one-fifth were minis- 
ters; and of the delegates to these and the first four annual meetings 
of the American A. S. Society, the proportion was the same. So tl)al 
in the A. S. retorm, in its unpopular days, taking all together, the 
ministry, as a class, were to the people, not as 1 to 500, the ratio of 
population, but as 1 to 5. 

Again, in the latter part of 1837, the Massacliusetts A. S. Society 
requested all its au.\iliaries to report their name, oflicers, and number 
of memiiers. From the returns received it appeared that the anti-sla- 
very societies then had a membership of 19,206 in the state, which was 
equivalent to 1 in 36 of the people. About the same time Mr. Phelps 
commenced a similar inquiry in respect to the ministry. He wrote to 
some minister in each association, or religious conneclion, knov\n to him 
as a decided abolitionist, requesting the number of members in said 
body, and also the number known as members of anti-slavery socie- 
ties, on the principle of immediate emancipation. Estimating the 
whole from the returns actually received, and it appeared that of the 
792 ministers of all denominations then in the State, 367, or 103 more 
than one third, or nearly half the whole, were members of such 
societies. At that time, taking the population as a whole, there was in 
the State 1 minister to 518 of the people. Had the ministry, as a 
class, been equally advanced with the people, and no more, we should 
have had 1 minister to 518 of the people in the anti-slavery societies. 



36 

Similar resolutions were passed at other meetings. About 
this time James Boyle, of Ohio, appeared in print again. 
His letters were published in the Liberator with high ap- 
proval. In one of them he said, '• Lawyers, doctors and 
priests, are the devil's trinity — and professions, as such, must 
perish." On the 2d of July following, in an editorial, in 
the National Anti-Slavery Standard, prepared for the pur- 
pose of expressing their views, the new Executive Committee 
of the old society said, — 

Anii-slavenj is a word of mighty power. Oh, it strikes at the very 
corner-stones and key-stones of society. It aims a death-ljlow at long 
cherished habits and opinions. It robs life of ail factitious honors; but 
above, and more than all, it would put an end forever to the unrighteous 
doiniaioii of " tlic church,'" it would unseat popular theology from its 
throne, break dovvn the barriers of sect, and in short, resolve society into 
its natural elements, saving all the real progress it has made in the 
scale of improvement. Here is the true issue on which the division 
in our ranks has been made up. What do " woman's rights " and 
" non-resistance " vveigh in a contest which threatens such a revolu- 
tion ? If it were possible to change the nature of the reform, so that it 
should have reference only to the abolition of negro physical slavery, and 
none whatever to the general emancipation of mind, depend upon it, 
women and non-resistants might have participated in our action, and 
not a thought of secession would have been tolerated. 

Thus was the work of perversion consummated. The 
very end and aim of the anti-slavery cause were changed. 
** Tiie general emancipation of mind," not the abolition of 
negro physical slavery, was now its object. It went for 
generic reform, — the " resolution of society into its natural 
elements." Anti-slavery societies had been and were to be 
used as a means to tlii^, not to their original end. And it 
was just because certain of the early abolitionists would not 
consent to it, that the division arose. " Here," on the con- 
fession of the party implicated, " teas the true issue ; " but for 
this, " not a thought of secession icould have been tolerated." 

This perversion effected, and matters stood thus. The 
anti-slavery organizations were used to unhinge public confi- 
dence in the ministry and churches, and to carry on the war 
against them on the ground of their alleged pro-slavery" cor- 
ruptions ; ' the non-resistance associations were used by the 
same persons to do the same work, on the ground of their 
so-called, war-making "corruptions;" and abolitionists were 
urged, in repeated instances, to withdraw from and bear 

Instead of this, however, there was I to 52 — showing that instead of 
being relative! ij behind the people, on the subject, they were in fact 900 
per cent, in advance! 



37 

\heiT tesfmiony against these " synagogiies of Satan." The 
preparation irork was done. All that could be efiected indi- 
tectly, throngh the anti-slavery organizations was effected, 
and the titne iiad come for the final development, — the assault 
on the ministry and the churches as such. On, therefore, 
came the " Church, Ministry, and Sabbath Convention," 
so termed. The result of that meeting, its denial of the Sab- 
bath and the ministry, and above all, its rejection of the Bible 
as of supreme authority in matters of religious faith and 
duty, are well known. Mr. Garrison feared, beforehand, 
that the calling of the meeting was "somewhat premature." 
Afterwards, he rejoiced in its result, because he " believed 
that the truth as it is in Jesus was signa^ly promoted by 
it;" and Kneeland's infidel Investigator rejoiced in it as "a 
monument of the vincibility of prejudice, and the triumph of 
plain truth." 

THE SPIRIT, SECTARIANISM, AND DISHONESTY OF THE 
LEADERS. 

A few facts in illustration of these points must close 
this humiliniing and painful development. They will also 
show, we think, that the very sectarianism and dishonesty 
so often charged upon the secession, really belong to the other 
party. 

At an early stage of our contentions, a difficulty occurred 
between the Executive Committees of the National and State 
Societies, in respect to the payment of a pledue due the for- 
mer from the latter. The committee of the State Society 
sent a sub-committee, consisting of Messrs. II. G. Chap- 
man and others, to New York, to remonstrate with the 
cominittee of the National Society, to induce them to change 
their decision in the case. Soon after their return, Mr. H. G. 
Chapman met Mr. Stanton in the anti-slavery office, 25 
Cornhill. and almost the first salutation was — " By G — d, 
your committee at New York are what I call d — n small 
coffee." 

Nor was this a solitary instance of the kind. The use of pro- 
fane language is not unfrequent with that individual, at least, 
on exciting occasions. Yet with this fact well known to his 
immediate friends, he has been put in nomination year after 
year, and elected to the office of treasurer of an institution 
that asks the co-operation and the charities of Christians, 
and has been heralded in the Martyr A^e and elsewhere as 
4 



38 

" an excellent man," with a " spirit of self-denial" worthy of 
all praise ! 

Again, the Rev. Alanson St. Clair, at the commencement 
of the difficulties, was an agent of the State Society, and a 
Restorationist and Christ-ian in his religious sentiments. 
Subsequently he has changed his religious views, and is now 
a member in good standing of an Orthodox Congregational 
Church in New Hampshire. The strange developments 
made, in the course of our divisions, on the part of those 
with whose religious sentiments he, at the outset, sympathiz- 
ed, have done much in efl'ecting this change. On the 8th 
of March, 1841, in reply to inquiries made by Mr. Phelps, 
Mr. St. Clair made the following statements in writing. 

You are aware that my confiJence in Mr. Garrison and Johnson, a3 
men of triub and integrity, was formerly very strong and full. In the 
former it remained so till the course he adopted and pursued in relation 
to the Massaohusetts ALiolitionist. In Mr. J. it was partially alienated 
and impaired the summer previous. In one instance he made a remark 
which led me to (]uestion the motives with which he was attacking 
ministers, and in another to fear that he was willing to sacrifice the anti- 
slavery cause to his other peculiar views. The Hist remaik was the 
more surprising, as I did not suspect, at the time, his views in relation 
to the Christian ministry and church, which have since been developed. 

During the summer of 1838, while Jlr, Garrison was at Droolilyn and 
Mr. .lohnson was editing the Lilierator, a statement ahout a clergyman 
was published in the paper, which, knowing the circumstances, I was 
aware was untrue. But supposing Mr. J. h:id made it by mistake, 
through misrepresei't.ilinn, and would be willing to correct it, I stated 
the facts 10 him, and desired him to do so. Some time afterwards, as he 
did not, I reminded him of it again. He replied, " Never mind it; any 
thing to give the clergy a dab." 

From the time the attempt was made in Oosion to form an evangelical 
anti-slavery society, Mr. J. often manifested a cordial hatred of evan- 
gelical principles as well as men. At one time during the summer of 
1838, on my combitting some loose opinion advanced by hiin, he re- 
plied that I was " getting to be too everlasting evangelical." At another 
he manifested his coniempt by sneeiingiy calling the bathing tubs at 
the Marlboro' Chapel, " tiie evangelical watering Irouglis." iVor did 
he share this hatred alone; but many other then and 7ww leaders of the 
old organization, partook of the same feelitig, and this has been the most 
powerful (notive in the course they have since pursued, and the secret of 
many of their movements. For the truth of this remark take the fol- 
lowing instances as proof. 

At the time the question of establishing tlie IMassarhusetts Abolition- 
ist was pending, in the winter of IS3S — 39, great efforts were made by 
the leadmg friends of the Liberator to induce nie to abandon the project. 
The evening before the annual meeting of the IMass A. iS. Society, while 
returning from Cambridgeport, in company v^ith IJev. J. V. liimes, of 
whose church I was then a member, he inquired why 1 wanted another 



39 



paper — why the Liherator was not sufficient ? I replied, for two rea- 
sons. First, we wanted one so cheap that every r.holiiioiiist could and 
would take it; and second, we wanted one free from olijectionable ex- 
traneous topics. 'I'iie Liberator was two dollars and a half a year, and 
devoted just as truly to the "woman question" and the overthrow of hu- 
man government, as to the abolition of slaveiy. He admitted the char- 
ges, but said if we estal)lisliid another paper it would " bring the Ortho- 
dox into power." 1 asked whom he meant by Orthodox. He replied, 
"all the so called evangelicals " Then, I remarked, they constitute nine- 
tenlhs of the abolitionists in the State. He said he was not prepared to 
dispute it, but that hedid not like their mode of doing business; that 
hitherto the anti-slavery cause had been kept out of their hands, and that 
he meant to keep it out if he could. 

This was the first development of sectarianism of so palpable and 
barefaced a nature, which I had ever witnessed in connection with any 
anli-shivery movement. Mr. Himes was and still is a meniber of the 
Board of .Managers of the old society in Massachusetts — a " no-gov- 
ernment" a!id " woman's rights" man, and a cordial hater of evangeli- 
cal Christians. 1 had frequently, during the summer and autumn pre- 
vious, heard the Executive Comtnittee at New York iiinted at as per- 
sons of doubtful trustworthiness, on account of their evangelical charac- 
ter, whom it would not be amiss to remove. Rijl here was the opea 
avowal of an intention, by a leading member of the Boston Comiiiitlee, 
to keep the control and influence of the anti-slavery movement in the 
hands of a small minority , because he disliked the religious views of 
the majoiiiy. 1 was alarmed at the disclosure, and, as you are awaie, 
the same evening stated the fict to you and H. B. Statilon, which you 
threw out by insinuations the following evening, in the public meeting. 
The next day was the annual meeting of the i^lale society. On enter- 
ing the Marlboro' Chapel, I was met by several friends, who informed 
nie that George Benson, brother-in-law of Mr. Garrison, was inquir- 
ing for, and anxious to see me. I now met him — vviiii much anxiety he 
desired me to accompany him to a lobby, where he immediately opened 
the subject of the newspaper, wiiich was to come before the meeting for 
discussion ami action. It was all, he assured me, an Oithodox plot and 
trick, to get the anti-slavery cause into their own hands, and throw 
Garrison overboard. I inquired for the evidence; he had none to give, 
but endeavored to produce conviction, by repeatins the asseilion. I 
asked if he supposed I would be guilty of any such plot. He replied. 
No. He and his friends thought me deceived; but still it was a plot, 
and if I would come out and abandon the proposition for a paper, they 
could show it to be such. 1 asked how. He replied by showing liiat 
there was nobody in fivor of it but the Orthodox. 1 assured liitn, if 
there was any plot in the matter, I was guilty of it; for I had fust laid 
the project bef)ru a ["ew abolition friends; and then, at the request of 
Dea. Everett, had pr<;sented it in resolutions before a county meeting, 
which had ariopied it with but one dissenting vote. He next endeavored 
to carry his point, by representing that the paper, if established, would 
bring the Oiihodox into power, who would kick me overboard with him, 
for my trouble. Finding I was not moved by the fear of such a terrible 
result, he attempted to di-^suade me from my purpose by fliittery, assur- 
ing me how much confidence he and his friends had reposed in me to 
carry forward Mr. Garrison's views and interests in Massachusetts, and 
that they would be ready to overlook any trifling error and give their full- 



40 

est confidence. Nor was he slow or bncUwnrd in innkinj^ prnniises of 
any lliin<^ in their power to hestow, in case 1 would aliantlon that "Or- 
thodox plot," and return to I\Ir. G.'s interest. But as this did not pro- 
duce its desired effect, he next addressed iiiy fears; slating lliat the Or- 
thodox abolitionists had no confidence in me, hut would ceriaiiily kici\ 
me wiih liim overboard the tnotnenl a paper should be esiablisiied. I 
asked for evidence of these charges, lie did not attempt to give any, 
except an account of 11. I?. Stanton's having at sundry times, made me 
the subject of ridicule, which he afierwa.'ds denied, on being brought 
face to fice with Stanton on llie sulji-ct. This interview in paired my 
confidence in iMr. Benson. I saw that, like Mr. Garrison and Himes, 
wliile he was charging sectarianism on liie orthodox (whom he explained 
to be Congregalionalisls, I'resbv teri ins, Episcopalians, I'aptists and Meth- 
odists,) he was governed purely by this prinriplo himself. 

A ftnv days after it had been agreed by the frirnds of the Mass. Ab- 
olitionist what sort of a paper it should lie, and when started, I called on 
Mr. Garrison to lei him know what we intended to do. He remarked 
that he deprecated the measure — it would open a door to let all those 
persons into the anti-slavery ranks, whom it had aKvavs been his object 
to keep out. Surprised at this remark, I asked him if he did not sup- 
pose the paper was to be anti-slavery, lie said yes. 1 inquired if he 
supposed it was to compromise abolition principles. He said no : he 
had no fears but that A would be high toned. Then I asked how it could 
open a door of admission to the anti-slavery ranks to any but abolition- 
ists; and who they were whom he wished to keep out. lie gave no 
explanation, but repeated that it would open a door to all those whom 
he had always labored to keep out. From his exceeding haired of niin- 
isters, a remark he is said once to have made, viz: that being a clergy- 
man is prima ficie evidence of a bad man, tiie remark he endorsed in 
his paper that clergymen " would rather have a religion and priesthood 
from hell than none at all," and from his uniform denunciations of 
that class, whether in or out of societies, I supposed he meant minis- 
ters. But as he refused to explain himself, I have no other evidence 
of his meaning. 

A few da}'s before the Albany convention, the same summer, on 
going into the saiTie otfice one morning, my atienlion was directed to 
two pictures — caricatures, — fastened up oti the left hand, among many 
Others representing the atrocities of slavery. They were drawn in pen- 
cil, of a coarse, vulgar character, designed to ridicule brothers Orange 
Scott, John G. VVhiitier, and William Goodell. In one picture was 
drawn Br. Scott alone, in the dress of a soldier, with liigh lioots, long 
huge spurs, epauletts on the s-houlders, Napoleon hat. high nodding 
plume, a long sword hangin<i by the left side, a brace of pistols in his 
belt, a huge bowie knife in his left hand, and in the right, a lance or spear, 
one end resting on ilie ground, and from the other hanging a flowing 
streamer, labelled "the staff of accoinplishmeiit." From ids mouth 
were proceeding the words: "I hate non resistance with a perfect ha- 
tred; the Prince of I'eace, is not the Prince of Orange." I'nder his 
feet in large capiials. were the words, " AN A!\IRASSADOR OF THE 
PRINCE OF PRACF IN FULL CANONICALS." 

On the other picture were drawn Scott, Whiilier, and Goodell. Scott 
occupied the right, Whitti r the centre, and Goodell the left. Th© 
design of Scoit's dress w;is that of a clergvman, with bands round the 
neck, JUie tliose worn by Episcopal clergymen, bare headed, poslur© 



41 

exhibiting gront fury, a pistol in tiie left hand, right arm raised and fist 
clenched «s if to stril<e some one, and tiiese words proceeding from liis 
mouth : — ■' If von iri-iiilt tiie, I'll ship your chops; for 1 hate non-resist- 
ance with a perfec'l hatred." (joodeli stood on the left, faring Scott, 
Friend of Man in his left hand, right artn raised and hand pointed toward 
Scott, with the following words coming from his mouth : " Go ahead 
brother, show yourself true pluck, and I'll bacU you. By the by, it is 
high time I got out my new evangelical piper, in which I shall show 
that all hinds of forgiveness are criminal, except when a man buys 
and sells you as an o.\; in that case only forgiveness becomes a duty." 

In the centre stood Whittier in his Q,uaker dress, with the Pa. Free- 
man in his left hand, right arm raised, and he addressing Scott and 
Goodell in these words. " I'll join you, brethren, in a nion)ent, if you 
will only siiow me how to get rid of this Quaker coat." Under the feet 
of the whole was drawn, in larjie capitals, "FIGHTING CHRIS- 
TIANS CO.MING 'lO 'I'lIF SCRATCH." 

I asked the clerk or man behind the counter, who put them up. He 
said it was the work of tlie non-resist.nnts. 1 inquired who. He said 
Comstock drew ihens. 1 asked who had them put in that office. He 
said Collins and .lohnson. I inquired if R!r. Garrison knew they were 
there. He replied, of course; he is in and out every day. I inquired 
if he knew that Sir. G. was aware of it. And lie replied yes; he had 
frequently seen him laughing at thecn with others. I then took a paper, 
wrote down their appearance and what was written, and said to him if 
he did not lake them down I would expose the w hole. He replied that 
he disapproved of it, hut it was more than his commission was worth to 
ren'.ove them. Yours fur the truth, A. St. Clair. 

The connmittce forbear. They are humbled and mortified 
at the developments vvliich have been made in the progress of 
this division, and which they have now felt constrained to 
lay before the public. They reveal sentiments and designs 
and traits of character, which, with two or three exceptions, 
the committee did not suspect, before the division commen- 
ced, to exist. Tlioy have been withheld from the public, gen- 
erally, to the very last — till forbearance has ceased to be a 
virtue. They are now given in sheer justice to those most 
implicated, to the anti-slavery public, and to posterity. They 
are given as specimens of otb.ers like them. They are given 
with sorrow of heart, yet in the hope that with this presenta- 
tion of the case the controversy, on our part, will end. 

V0LUNT.\RY SOCIETIES. 

There is a tendency in the minds of some men, aboli- 
tionists as well as others, to overlook the proper boundaries 
between the province and duties of voluntary societies, and 
those of the great permanent institutions of society in church 
and in the State. A voluntary society is not a church, with 
its ordinances and forms of worship, and disciplinary powers; 
nor a government, with its system of civil and penal law. 
4* 



42 

Nor is it a substitute for either. The heaven-nppointed in*' 
stitutions, for the perpetuation and extension of the gospel, 
and for the preservation of liberty and social order, can never 
be set aside, or beneficially exchanged for any other j)lanSj 
by any power less authoritative than the divine voice by 
which they were esitablislied. 

But, like every other institution administered bv men, im- 
perfect in wisdom and goodness, they may be perverted in 
part, or wholly, from their legitimate ends; or through the 
supineness, or ignorant or criminal apathy of the administra- 
tors, cease to discharge some one or more of the duties en- 
trusted to them. And it is a principle universally true, that 
the guilly will never reform themselves, without tlie pressure 
of some external influence. 

Here, then, is the proper province of voluntary societies, 
viz., to reform or reanimate the social, civil and ecclesiastical 
institutions of the community. The latter are the necessary 
and permanent arrangements of man in social life. The for- 
,nier,* temporary in duration and specific in design. They 
are, and must be, in the first instance, composed, not of the 
churches and municipalities, hut of those individual members 
of these bodies who see the need of reform, and are able to 
agree together to employ the most judicious means to effect 
it. When these means have been used with such success as 
to rouse the churches and municipalities, to the discharge 
of their duties, the work of the voluntary society is done. 
Its continuance is useless if not injurious. 

The design of abolition societies was, and is, to effect a 
reform both in church and in State, both of which v\-e judged 
were corrupted by the influences and gains of slavery, in al- 
most every department of their organization. We aim to 
rouse the churches, of every sect, to purify themselves from 
all connection with the system of slavery, and the several 
governments of our own and of other countries to terminate 
its legal existence. That we have not yet made such pro- 
gress in our work, that we cnn dispense with our societies, 
we think is obvious. But that much progress has been made 
towards this result, we firmly believe. 



* Those associations, like missionary and Bible societies, are indeed 
" voluntary," because no one is compelled to join ihetn. But they 
should be regarded simply, as the judicious arrangements of a church 
already (so far) reformed, and awake to its duty, to extend its bounda- 
ries, l)v the conversion of the unbelievin'r. 



43 



EFFECTS OF THE DIVISION. 

Some persons, without, due consideiation, hnve supposed 
that the division in our ranks has hindered tlie onward course 
of the work. It is true, that for a time some were disheart- 
ened. Amid the din of inlern;il warfare some almost forgot 
the slave; and a few of llie faint-liearted withdrew wholly 
from our associations. But those who deemed the division 
so disheartening, do not sufficiently consider what would 
have been our present |)Osition without it. Had tlie insid- 
ious poison of Antinomian perfectionism been allowed to 
make its way unchecked, through all the ranks of the anti- 
slavery host, we had now been engaged, as a body, as a few 
of our former coadjutors are, in a l)ilter but fruitless warfare 
upon the permanent institutions of society and of religion, 
unmindful of the cry of the perishing poor — while the pos- 
sibility of any real progress in our appropriate business 
would have been destroyed. In a word, wiiatever of advance- 
ment in the cause has taken place since the division in the 
winter of 1S39, must be attributed to the new organizations, 
or to the previously e.xisting agencies which were saved from 
the grasp of the no-governnient faction by the influence, di- 
rect and indirect, of the protest against and the stern resis- 
tance of their insidious designs. 

Nearly all the existing state and local societies, in every 
part of the land, have, by withdrawing auxiliaryship and 
other measures, cut loose from this destroyer of our harmony. 
While the very few that still adhere to it, nominally, are 
rendered exceedingly cautious in their downward movements. 
If they do any thing I'or the cause, as we are happy to ex- 
press our belief that some of them do, it is one of the results 
of the division. But for this, acting as a conservative power, 
they might have been wholly perverted ere this. 

CHURCH ACTION. 

This society and its auxiliaries have held, from the begin- 
ning, that it was the duty of Christian churches to withdraw 
fellowship, after due admonition, from slaveholders, as per- 
sons whose conduct is immoral ; and who, therefore, should 
never be recognized as Christians in good standing, until 
they cease to rob and oppress their poor brethren. Your 
committee rejoice to record the fact that such views, and the 
correspondent practice, have made rapid progress the past year. 

1. Quite a number of local churches, in this State, of the 
Baptist, Congregational, and Freewill Baptist denoniina- 



44 

tions, have taken the scriptural ground of refiisincr any lonsei* 
to receive slaveholders to their pulpits and communion. 
Many others, in other Slates, have done tlie same. 

2. Several ecclesiastical bodies in our State, among others 
the Essex North and Middlesex Union (Cong.) associations, 
have attempted to influence slaveholding professors to " do 
justice " by correspondence. The able and affectionate ap- 
peal of the former body to the Charleston, South Carolina, 
Union Presbytery, composed extensively of " Northern men 
with Southern principles," and practices, too, was returned 
with contempt! We regard this event with the more inter- 
est, because the Essex North Association has been hitherto 
silent on the subject. We trust the exhibiiion of anti-chris- 
tian feeling, on the part of men educated, chiefly, in their 
very midst, (at Andover Theological Seminary,) will lead 
them and others to take more decided abolition ground in 
respect to church action. The correspondence of the Gen- 
eral Conference of Maine, with southern ecclesiastics, re- 
sulted in prompt and thorough action, on the part of that 
body. Similar correspondence has been carried on, the past 
year, by other bodies, in Vernjont and other States, the re- 
sult of which is not yet developed. 

3. r>Iany important conventions of Christians have been 
held the past year, in this and other States. The State 
conventions of the Baptists, at Worcester, the Universalists, 
at Lynn, the Presbyterians and Congregationalists at Con- 
cord, N. H., the Baptists at Topsham, Me., the Friends in 
Indiana, with many otiiers, of more limited districts, have 
given an impulse to the cause which will never cease to 
be felt till slavery dies. The National Baptist and Meth- 
odist A. S. Conventions were numerously attended, and, in 
both cases, A. S. Societies were formed, for the purpose 
of acting with greater efiiciency to purify their respective 
denominations. 

The influence already exerted upon Southern Baptists, by 
the action and publications of the Am. Bap. A. S. Society, 
we regard as a pledge that the churches of that great de- 
nomination will never rest till they are purified from the 
pollutions of slavery. 

The effect of special effort in the other great denomina- 
tion referred to, is equally apparent, both in respect to the 
number and character of their periodicals, and the tone of 
their conferences and societies. 

4. It is almost impossible to enumerate the strictly eccle- 



45 

siastical bodies, of different sects, which have taken the right 
ground, on this subject, the past year. Among tlieni rnay 
be mentioned the Presl)3terian Synod and Congregational 
Association of Illinois, the Synod of Cincinnati, the General 
Association of Connecticut, the Congregational Association 
of N. Y. State, the Worcester North (Cong.) Conference, 
the Vermont (Bapt.) State Convention, the Synod of In- 
diana, the Synod of JMichignn, the Wendell (Bapt.) Associ- 
ation, and about 30 or 40 other Bripti^t Associations, and 
more than as many more Presbyteries and Congregational 
Associations, besides Methodist, Freewill Baptist, Christian, 
Lutheran, Covenanter, and Reformed Presbyterian synods, 
conferences, quarterly meetings, and other bodies, connected 
with these and other sects, embracing several hundred min- 
isters and churches, which have, mostly for the first time, 
taken high abolition ground, since our last anniversary. 
There are very few ecclesiastical bodies in the New England 
States which have not acted decisively, on tlie subject. 
Of these a large portion have taken the ground of imme- 
diateism. And it is lielieved that a large majority of the 
ministers of the free States have publicly avowed their con- 
viction of the truth of our views, in respect to slavery and 
its remedy. The ministers, as a body, have ever been, rel- 
atively, far in advance of the people. 

As a sample of the general tenor and spirit of the action 
of these bodies, as well as of the various conventions before 
mentioned, we quote a single resolve of the Wendell (Bap- 
tist) Association in this State. 

Resolved, That tlie slnveholder. tho»7gli found in ilip riiii-;linn Church, 
or professing lo be a minister of llie gc-fiel, is. imi v\ ii l;fi;.i du g, in ihe 
practice of lieinous sins; and llial ihe (ellnws-liip of ilie (liuulits of the 
IVortli, w lien extended to llie slnv t holi'rr, is a (ellowsliip wiili l^nown 
and acknowledged sin; and that \\ iiliolding feilow.-liip fiuiii such is 
withdrawing the sanction of the church from heinous sin. 

5. The action on this stihjrct at the World's Convention, 
last summer, was in accordance with these views. Early in 
the sessions of that important body, the subject of church 
action was referred to a conimitlee to consider and report. 
And, after a day's discussion in committee, and a protracted 
discussif)!! in convention, iiifluenced very considerably, if not 
chiefly by the appeals and aroruments of " new organization- 
ists," and to a ereal extent, by one of the delegates from this 
society, the convenlion voted, with great unanimity, in favor 
of excluding slaveholders from Christian fellow sliip. The 



46 

moral effect of this decision is seen in the numerous instances 
in which British Christians, inchiding the whole Methodist 
denomination, the General Baptists, the Scottish Congrega- 
tional Union, besides numerous local churclies, have respond- 
ed to their vote, as well as the increased frequency of such 
action in this country. Already, not slaveholders alone, but 
their apologists, begin to find that the Christianity of Britain 
has "no fellowship with" that " unfruilful work ofdarkness," 
slavery. Soon the slaveholder and those who defend him will 
find that all who are worthy to bear the name of Curistian, 
repel from their embraces those who commit or uphold others 
in committing this worst of crimes, the plunder of the poor. 

Meantime, we should remember that from the nature of 
the mind, and the laws of society, every great change which 
is not urged on by the pressure of present self-interest or the 
voice of passion, is slow in reaching masses of men and 
controlling their action. And while we urge the duty of 
action upon others, we should not be too impatient if they 
are less prompt than our wishes. How long o>ir Heavenly 
Father endured our own blindness and unbelief on this sub- 
ject! Let us be patient, but vigilant, active, persevering; 
and we shall triumph. 

The developments of' hostility in southern slaveholding 
churches, and the servility of a portion of the leading reli- 
gious men and ministers in our large towns, where slavery 
exerts the most influence, should encourage, rather than 
alarm us. The conduct of the (New School) General As- 
sembly of the Presbyterian Church, in requesting its Presby- 
teries to rescind their action against slavery, after solemnly 
referring the matter to them for decision, has been nobly 
rebuked by many of the subordinate bodies. Nor does 
the conduct of the General Conference of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, in excluding the testimony of its 
80,000 colored members, wherever the civil law forbids their 
testimony, and thus exposing thousands of unprotected mem- 
bers to every ruffian wlio may choose to assault them, fail to 
meet with stern rebuke from the thousands of the true-heart- 
ed in that body. 

The exclusion of Elon Galusha frotn the Missionary Board 
of the Bnptist denomination, by a combination of slavehold- 
ers and their northern defenders, will never be submitted to 
by the followers of Roger Williams. These are the last vic- 
tories of the slave power in these great denominations. They 
are such victories that another would kill the conquerors. 



47 



LITERARY INSTITUTIONS. 

The removal of all restrictions upon the forntiation of an 
anti-slavery society in Andover Seminary, a measure which 
Prof Stuart strenuously advocated, and the formation of an 
abolition society in Amherst College, together with the recep- 
tion of two colored students in Phillip's Academy, at Ando- 
ver, and of one at Amherst College, on equal terms with 
others, coupled with the fact that Dartmouth College is the 
abode of freedom, demonstrate that our cause makes progress 
in the literary circles as well as in other classes of society. 

THE CANADA MISSION. 

The doors of Liberty's temple in Canada have stood open 
during the year to all comers, and probably more than a 
thousand toil worn captives have entered it and found rest. 
Hiram Wilson and his coadjutors have continued their self- 
denying labors for the diffusion of the blessings of education 
and Christianity among them, with much success. We are 
happy to announce the organization of a Missionary Board, 
at Rochester, N. Y., to take charge of this mission, who 
will be responsible for the proper application and expenditure 
of what is contributed. To this mission, as also to the 
expenses of the Amistad t'rial, the friends of our society have 
contributed, the past year, with their accustomed readiness 
and liberality. These objects, and other similar incidental 
objects, should be liberally sustained, without losing sight, 
however, of the i)nramouiit importance of n)ore direct eHorls 
to promote the general cause. 

POLITICAL ACTION. 

We turn now to the other great department of public 
action in behalf of the slave. 

1. The duti/ of acting politically was the corner stone of 
our society. The attempt to set aside the declaration of it, 
by the no-government leaders, was the chief cause of our se- 
cession from them. The society and its committee have 
ever maintained the ground then assumed, viz : that duty to 
God and our country required us to employ our political power 
for the immediate overthrow of slavery. The society and 
its committee have never pledged themselves to any i^picijic 
mode of discharging that duty, leaving this an open question 
to be decided according to the circumstances of the case. 

At the time the second Albany Convention was called, 
your committee addressed a public circular to the " voting 



48 

abolitionists" of the State, in vvliich they remark, " We 
believe the right of suffrage to be a gift bestowed on the cit- 
izen, which, as a Cliristian freeman, he is sacredly bound to 
exercise, which obligation is enhanced by the magnitude of 
the question on which he is called to vote ; and there being 
no longer any reason to hope that such candidates, viz., those 
in favor of immediate abolition, will be presented by either 
party at the next Presidential election, we think the time has 
fully come for our friends to meet and ara^fly consider the 
question whether they will or will not supply the deficiency, 
by nominating men upon whom they can concentrate their 
suffrages, without a sacrifice of their principles and the cause 
of humanity." They conclude by assuring our friends that 
if the Albany meeting should decide " to put abolition can- 
didates in nomination, that decision will be carried out in 
good faith by the great body of voting abolitionists in this 
commonwealth." 

The editors of our paper and all our agents have been al- 
lowed to pursue their own course on this subject, as on all 
others, without restriction. Some of our agents have been by 
no means favorable to such a course, and have exerted their 
influence against it. The position of the comn)ittee and of 
the society has ever remained unchanged. Nor would we 
recommend any change in princij)le, at this time. The so- 
ciety and its auxiliaries have always expressed their conviction 
that the claims of the slave should hold a paramount place at 
the polls, and in the halls of legislation. The conviction that 
every interest of our country, and every dictate of humanity 
and religion requires this, has been impressed upon otir minds 
more powerfully than ever, by the events of the past year. 
At the same time, the question of the propriety of an entirely 
independent course of political action, seems to be settled 
in the minds of nearly all whose active co-o])eration in our 
cause can be depended upon for the future. So decided was 
this conviction in the minds of the members of the parent 
society, at its late meeting, that it was voted unanimously to 
recommend a change in that article of its constitution which 
had been deemed by some, adverse to an efficient promotion 
of this form of political action. And since, to use the lan- 
guage of the annual report of the Am. and For. A. S. Soci- 
ety, the Liberty Party movement has become an " integral 
part of the anti-slavery enterprise," and, in the judgment of 
our most valued coadjutors, is the wisest mode in which we 
can discharge our highest political duties, the committee deem 



49 

it the course of sound policy and of duty, to give it their de- 
cided and efficient eucoiirageineiit, in every suitable way, 
while at the same time, the machinery of political arrange- 
ments should be left as heretofore, to conventions of legal 
voters, under the direction of their own organizations. It is 
confidently believed that the Liberty Party wdi hereafter, unite 
not only all those who are now known as the friends of human 
rights, but the great mass of our fellow citizens who are op- 
posed to the continuance of the demoralizing and impover- 
ishing system of slave labor. 

The Liberty Party, like other parties, will define its own 
system of public policy. We do not deem it necessary to 
pledge our individual approval of every feature of its future 
policy. But no other party makes the overthrow of sla- 
very any part of its designs, while this is the great work of 
the Liberty Party, to which all other things are subordi- 
nate. Siiould it follow the example of other parties, and be- 
come servile and corrupt, we shall hold ourselves as ready to 
condemn it as we are now to commend it to public favor. 
But this we have no present reason to anticipate. 

THE LATE NATIONAL ELECTION. 

The history of the late contest presents instructive lessons 
on this subject. While both the old parties placed in nonu- 
nation slaveholding candidates for the Vice Presidency, and 
pro-slavery candidates for the first oifice in the gift of the 
people, they so managed as to deceive the mass of abolition- 
ists into the belief that the success of their parties was essen- 
tial to the prosperity of our cause. This was especially the 
case with the whig party. The liberty nomination came too 
late to rescue the majority from the snare : 7000 men, of 
whom Massachusetts furnished nearly one fourth, were found 
who would not compromise at all with slavery for the sake 
of party; and we have yet to hear of any one of the number 
who does not rejoice at his course. And we cannot but re- 
gard that solemn event by which the late chief magistrate 
was removed from life and its cares, almost before he had en- 
tered upon his official labors, and by which, consequently, a 
elavehuhh.'r, devoted to the slave interests, has been placed in 
the presidential chair, as a rebuke to those of us who forgot 
our principles, by contributing to elevate such men to office; 
and a providential warning to us all, to remember that to 
walk in the path of duty and humanity to the crushed bond- 
man, is the best, the only way to secure that political and 
5 



50 

financial prosperity which is among the chief ends of good 
government. Certainly no plan could have been devised, by 
which every interest of the free labor States wonld have been 
more completely subjected to the control of the cotton, su- 
gar and tobacco interests, or the despotic slave power, whose 
control over the finances and general legislation and diplo- 
macy of our government, has heretofore proved so disastrous. 
It is difficult to believe that the free north, embarrassed by 
the loss of more than 1^200,000,000 irrecoverable southern 
debt, within five years past, will consent much longer to sub- 
mit to be ruled by a reckless, bankrupt, unprincipled minori- 
ty, because that minority possess the impudence and selfish- 
ness so characteristic of a slaveholding community, whose on- 
ly interest, slave labor, enables them, on all occasions, with- 
out sacrifice, to act in combination. We, too, must act to- 
gether, for the great interests of that system of fhee labor 
which is the basis of our prosperity, and of our whole sociaJ 
system. Perhaps tlie North may need the teaching of another 
five years of financial embarrassment, ere they will learn that 
slavery and freedom cannot co-exist and both prosper. But 
we trust not. IMen who have been hostile to our cause, have 
learned from their ledgers and cash books lessons on this 
subject which all our agents and presses could never teach 
them. And such lessons men seldom forget. 

LIBERTY PARTY IN THIS STATE. 

Soon after the Albany convention in 1S40, the friends of 
independent nominations in the State held a State conven- 
tion, nominated an electoral ticket, and candidates for State 
offices ; and took measures to secure an efficient political or- 
ganization in all parts of the State. They issued, at their 
erpmsc, several extras of our paper, prepared by them, em- 
bodying a mass of facts and reasonings representing the po- 
litical] and financial power of slavery, which made a strong 
impression upon the public mind, the influence of which will 
be felt more and more in i'liture elections. The untiring ef- 
forts of that committee and their agents secured nearly IGOO 
votes of liberty candidates, being more than were ever before 
given in this State for abolitionists ; and that, too, in a time oi 
unprecedented party excitement, when it was almost impossi- 
ble to gain a hearing. In several subsequent elections in 
this and other States, the liberty votes have increased* from 



*[n Worcester district the increase from Nov. to Jlay, was from 126 
to 333. la Bristol Co., in several towns, four fold. In several towns in 



51 

three to ten-fold ; and they will continue to increase till sla- 
very is overllirown. 

In the language of a pouthern slaveholder, " the united po- 
litical power of the abolitioiiisis at the North will enlighten 
the South more, in one <lay, than all the books which have 
been published." Such liglit is needed here, as well as in 
Alabama, and will be equally convincing and effectual. 

The recent unanimons nomination of Messrs. Birney and 
Morris as the national liberty candidates for 1S44, by dele- 
gates from eleven States, show tiiat its beams will not be want- 
ing to flash conviction upon the darkened mind of the nation, 
hereafter, 

THE AMIST.\D CASE. 

Our last annual report noticed the fact that the Amistad 
and her owners were in captivity, and in danger of deliver- 
ance to the horrors of Cuban slavery and death, through the 
servility of our government officers. With gratitude to God 
we record their rescue from thraldom, and their restoration 
to their unforfeited rights. This result, in the face of a 
thousand obstacles, is due, under God, to the persevering 
fidelity of Messrs Leavitt, Tappan and Josselyn, and their le- 
gal counsel, Messrs. J. Q,. Adams, Baldwin and Sedgwick. 
We may be permitted to rejoice that our judiciary still stands 
erect, uiicorrupted by the smiles, unmoved by the frowns of 
southern despots. These captives, after receiving a suitable 
education, will doubtless be restored to their native land, ac- 
companied by the messengers of Christianity and civilization, 
to impart the gospel wiili its attendant blessings to their 
countrymen. The freedom of these captives is the first jw- 
dicial triumph of liberty over slavery, since the Missouri 
compromise, as the successful effort to repel Texas from the 
Union, was the first legislative victory in our national coun- 
cils. 

KENTUCKY. 

The agitation of the question in Kentucky in connection 
with the effort to revive the slave trade between that and oth- 
er States, is regarded as having settled tlie question of speedy 
abolition in that noble State. 



Middlesex, fourfold. I.n New Iliimjishire, from Nov. to April, from IH 
to 1628. In Kennebec Dislrint, !\le., from about 60 to 353. ]n Ver- 
mont, from 319 to 1182. And in oilier elections, in the same propor- 
tions. At a similar rale of increase, James G. Hirney would be choseu 
president at au early day, by the vole of all the States of the Union. 



52 



INDIA COTTON, BEET SUGAR, SII.K, TOUACCO, CORN LAWS. 

No proposition is more demoristriibly true, than that slave 
labor cannot compete with free labor, on e(pial terms, in 
the production of tlie same articles. Free Ial)or is always 
one-third, and generally twice as profitable as slave labor. 
And in respect of all the great staples produced liy slave la- 
bor, this proposition is about to be worked out on a great 
scale. 

England is beainning to employ her capital, on a great 
scale, in tlie production of free labor cotton, on the plains 
of India, from whence she can supply all Europe with cot- 
ton, at a lower rate than it can possibly be raised by slave 
labor. Slave labor cotton pays no profit at 8 cents per pound, 
average price, in the Liverpool and Havre markets. India 
cotton, of equally good staple, will pay a profit at 6 cents, 
average price. In a few years England will need no cotton 
from the United States! What will the planters do? Be- 
sides, the amount of cotton grown in the West Indies, South 
America, around tiie shores of the Mediterranean and else- 
where, is rapidly increasing. Free labor beet sugar, too, is 
constantly superseding slave grown cane sugar. In a few years 
the free Stales will need no su^ar from the South. 

And the free tobacco of Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Mich- 
igan and JMissouri, already seriously embarrasses the tobacco 
grower on the old worn out, slavery cursed soils of Mary- 
land, Virginia and Middle Kentucky. 

And the grain of the great Northwest, is crying out 
for a market, in tones which will be heard. Already the 
States of New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, 
Wisconsin and Iowa, produce a large surplus of wheat and 
corn, for which there is, and can be no domestic inarket 
found, at remunerating prices; while the hall-starved ope- 
ratives of England, and even the manufacturing interests, 
are strivincr, with evident success, to secure the overthrow 
of their corn laws, and other portions of their tariff, by 
■which the agricultural and oilier products of our free 
States, are excluded from the markets of Great Britain and 
Ireland. And when frre labor once finds an open market 
there, and we are no longer dependent upon cotton, and 
other products of slavery, to pay for our imports, slave labor 
will cease to be profitable, and the I'ree North no longer 
subjected to the control of slavery, in respect to its foreign 
and domestic exchanges, will be IVeed from those fluctuations 



53 

in its business, now so common and so injurious, and her 
prosperity will be as unexampled as her institutions are free, 
and her people enligiitened. 

THE FUTURE. 

It requires no prophet's vision, therefore, to show us that 
the days of shivery are numbered. Multitudes of the re- 
flecting and business men around us begin to understand the 
fact tiiat slavery is an enormous tax upon the free States. — 
That when a communitv like JMassachusetts, where one-half 
the total population do the labor of an able bodied man, aid- 
ed by machinery, too, adds less than six per cent, per annum 
to its capital, the slaveholding States, where less than one- 
quarter of the people labor for the subsistence of the whole, 
must be, in the long run, not only a poor, but ^ pauper zom- 
munity, ever wasting its capital stock. That this is the case 
at the present moment with all the cotton States, no well in- 
formed man can doubt. If those States were compelled to pay 
their just debts, more than one-half of all the real and personal 
property of Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida 
and South Carolina, would be transferred to northern and for- 
eign hands. Indeed, so strong is the conviction of this truth, 
that in the indebted States it is almost impossible to collect 
debts at all. The immense but indirect losses to the North 
by the slave trade, and by the dependence of our exchanges 
on cotton, are fast opening men's eyes to their true interests 
in this matter. The recent developments in regard to the 
Penn. U. S. Bank have shown some, at least, of our financiers 
that the North must pay all the cost and reap none of the 
profit of an attempt to maintain an uniform currency and par 
exchanges between tiie rich North ai;d the bankrupt and 
spendthrift South. The North alone must furnish the capi- 
tal for such a process; (whether it be done by a bank or oth- 
erwise ;) iheiiorthcrn profits of the business must be absorbed 
by southern losses ; the North must pay for the good currency 
it furnishes to the South. And, in short, to use the language 
of some leading bankers of our city, we " must choose be- 
tween selling goods to the South and getting no pay, and 
lending them the money to pay with, and then losing the 
loan." 

The results of the recent census, showing the relative de- 
cline in power, population, and resources of the slave, as 
compared with the free States, have already alarmed and 
mortified the defenders of slavery, and encouraged many a 
5* 



54 

timid northerner who feared to encounter those who held so 
nearly the balance of politiciil power in the nation. At the 
next election for president, tlie free States will cast 185 votes, 
and the slave states only IIS at the most ; leaving a nortiiern 
majority of 07. The doom of slavery is sealed ihe moment 
the free North knows her strength. The victims of the in- 
ternal slave trade, from 1S30 to 1S40, as shown by the cen- 
sus, were not less than 300,000. The waste of life under the 
system, could not be less than 200,000, or 8 per cent., as de- 
duced from the same source. Humanity and justice will not 
sleep over these things ten years longer, unless God has in- 
deed given us over to the doom of Tyre and Babylon. 

And then the more vigorous action of the religious classes 
of society against slavery, shows that the moral and religious 
influences which will give vigor and direction to the impulses 
of interest, will not be wanting. The reliiiious world is 
not likely again to sleep over it. 

OUR PLANS. 

Our course, then, is onward, onward to certain and speedy 
triumph. God lives, and our cause shall live also. Christ 
reigns till he hath put all the enemies of truth and righteous- 
ness under his feet, and his throne is pledged to give " deliv- 
erance to the captives," and break the oppressor's rod in 
pieces. What we need hereafter is a vigorous and constant 
use. of the press, and such a litnited amount of judicious 
agencies as will aid in the various departments of church and 
political action, while we do not assume the burden of either. 
For this our friends should promptly furnish the means, and 
with them offer up their united and fervent prayers to Al- 
mighty God that he would crown our labors with abundant 
success. 

The death of our former associates in this work should 
admonish us to be diligent in our efforts. One of our former 
Vice Presidents, Col. Roger Leavitt, of Charlemont, and an 
oflicer of the auxiliary, the venerable Dr. Emmons of Fran!:- 
lin, one of the earliest friends of the slave in our country, 
and others who were faithful to his interests, have been call- 
ed " up higher," leaving us to toil on, looking up to the 
God and Saviour, into whose presence they have entered, for 
wisdom and strencith to iruide and nerve us in our work. 



PROCEEDINGS 

OK THE 

SECOND ANiNUAL MEETING OF THE MASSACHU- 
SETTS ABOLITION SOCIETY. 



The Society met for the choice of officers and the trans- 
action of other business, at Tremont Chnpel, corner of Tre- 
inont and Bronifield streets, on Tuesdiiy, May 25th, at 3 
o'clock, P. M. 

In the absence of the president, Wm. B.Dodge, of Salem, 
the 1st vice president, took the chair, when tlie meeting was 
opened with prayer by Rav. Junes T. Woodbury, of Acton. 

Gentlemen from other States were invited to participate in 
the proceedings of the meeting. 

Committees were appointed to nominate officers for the 
ensuing year ; to take the roll ; and to prepare business for 
the meeting. 

The financial affairs of the society were tlien taken up, 
and the Gen. Fin. Agent made a full exhibit of the financial 
condition of the society. 

The whole amount received into the treasury the past year 
is •S.),95!)70 ; amount paifl out, 81),i)i:} 00, leaving a balance 
of 640 70. Notes and bills payable, (exclusive of balances 
due agents, and including the debt of last year, nearly 
.^^.lOO,) 8 t,:340 33. He liirlher stated thnt, at a meeting of 
the Board of Managers in tlie forenoon, all this subject was 
discussed, and it was thought best to recommend that four 
thousand dollars be raised tor the liquidation of the debts of 
the society. 

After a full discussion it was unanimously Voted, That a 
subscription pnper be now opened for the purpose of pnying 
off the debts of the society, and that four tiiousand dollars be 
raised immediately ; whereupon $l,3'2-j were subscribed by 
tliose present. 



56 

The nominating committee reported, which report was 
accepted and adopted as follows. 

Officers. 

President. — Samuel Osgood, D. D., Springfield. 

Vice Presidents. — Essex, William B. Dodge, Salem ; Mid- 
dlesex, William North, Lowell; Suffolk, Charles Tappan, 
Boston; Worcester, N., J. W. Cross, W. Boylston ; Wor- 
cester, S., T. W. Ward, Shrewsbury ; Franklin, Jasper Be- 
ment, Ashfield ; Hampden, Abel Bliss, Wilbraham ; Hamp- 
shire, J. P. Williston, Northampton ; Berkshire, G. W. 
Sterling, G. Barrington ; Norfolk, Appleton Howe, Wey- 
mouth ; Bristol, G. W. Johnson, Easton ; Plymouth, Morton 
Eddy, Bridgewater ; Dukes, Elihu P. Norton, Edgartown ; 
Barnstable, Zenas D. Bassett, Barnstable. 

Cor. Sec. — Elizur Wright, Jr., Boston. 

lice. Sec. and Treasurer. — J. W. Alden, Cambridgeport. 

Auditor. — B. H. Barnes, Chelsea. 

Board of BFanagcrs. — Caleb Swan, Easton ; C. T. Tor- 
rey, Boston ; Joel Hayden, Haydeuville ; Chauncy Chapin, 
Springfield ; Ingalls Kittredge, Beverly ; Preston Pond, 
Wrentham ; Jacob Ide, Medway ; Cyrus P. Grosvenor, 
Worcester: James Porter, Boston; Thomas Gould, Boston. 

Rev. A. A. Phelps, Cor. Sec, read the annual report in 
part, when the society adjourned till the next morning, at 8 
o'clock. At the hour of adjournment the remainder of the 
report was read by liev. C. T. Torrey, and the report, as 
a whole, adopted. 

PUBLIC ANNIVERSARY MEETING, WEDNESDAY, 3 o'CLOCK, P. BI. 

The anniversary meeting was holden in the Marlboro' 
Chapel, on Wednesday, 2(jth iust., at 3 o'clock, P. M., W. 
B. Dodge, of Salriii, in the cliair. The Throne of Grace 
was addressed by Rev. J. C. Webster, of Hopkinton, after 
which abstracts from the annual report were read by Messrs. 
A. A.Phelps and C. T. Torrey. 

The following resolutions were then presented by C. W. 
Denison, on beli.ilf of the Business Committee, and ably and 
eloquently sustained by Rev. Elon Galusha, of Perry, N. Y., 
and Rev. Luther Lee, of Lowell. 

1. Re olved. Tint our ilianks are clue io Altiiijrhty C<tH\ for tlie Mess- 
ing liat, under circumsiancp-s of peculiar trial, he lias Ltslowed on our 
lal)ors as a society, durin;^ the past year. 

2. Resolved^ I.-i the langujifre of .lohn Wesley, that we are as much 
as ever convinced that American slavery is the vilest that ever saw the 



57 

•on; and also, in the language of Hon. Cassius M. Clay, of Kentucky, 
that it is " evil morally, evil intellectually, evil politically, evil pecunia- 
rily; only evil, and that continually." 

3. Resolved, That we are strengthened in our convictions by the ex- 
perience of the past year, as shown in the progress of the British W. I. 
islands, of the duty, profitableness, and safety of immediate emancipa- 
tion. 

4. Whereas, The Federal Government have unconstitutionally legal- 
ized slavery in the District of Columbia; and 

Whereas, Through the influences of the slave power, it has unjustly 
interfered in behalf of shivery, thereby squandering large sums (amount- 
ing to about forty millions of dollars) in support of that unchri.sliun and 
disgraceful institution, therefore. 

Resolved, That it is the duty of the friends of the master and the 
slave, as Christians, as patriots, and as men, to meet this legalized polit- 
ical evil by organized political action. 

5. Resolved, That the slaveholder, though found in the Christian 
church, or professing to be a minister of the gospel, is, notwithstanding, 
in the practice of heinous sin, and that the fellowship of the ciiurchesat 
the North, when extended to the slaveholder, is a fellowship with known 
and acknowledged sin; and that withholding fellowship from such, after 
suitable gospel labor, is withdrawing the sanction of the church from 
heinous sin; and that, therefore, the sooner such sanction is withdrawn, 
in the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, the better it will be for the church, 
the cause of emancipation, and the slaveholder himself 

6. Resolved, 'I'hat that is a sickly benevolence which does not sym- 
pathize and act in behalf of sufiering humanity every where and among 
all men. 

7. Resolved, That no reason exists in the nature of man, in the prej- 
udices of the v.'liite community, or in the condition, prospects, or char- 
acter of our colored bretiiren, for continuing the effort to "colonize 
them in Africa or elsewhere." 

8. Rcsolvfd, That the colonization of our colored population tends 
to impoverish our country by abstracting its laborers — the very basis of 
its wealth and prosperity — and to injure the moral and social condition 
of whatever country they may be thrown upon, by importing the vices 
of civilization without a suliicient degree of education and religious 
character. 

9. Resolved, That past experience, present circumstances, and future 
prospects, conspire to confirni us in the belii^^lf of the soundness of our 
principles, the practicability of our measures, and the final triumph of 
the anti-slavery cause in this land and throughout the wor'd. 

The Rev. Hiram Ciitiimings, of Duxbttv}', nti agent of the 
society, made a brief stalcineiit touching the niantier in 
which the present debt was created, the faithful discharge of 
the arduous duties of tlie Executive Cotniiiittee llie i)ast year, 
the dtity of their constituents to relieve their committee at 
once of sitch a burden, and their ability and willingness to 
do so, and concluded by reading the several amounts sub- 
scribed the day before. 

Slips of paper were then circulated for pledges, and a 



58 

collection taken up; during which the Rev. Nathaniel Col- 
ver, of Boston, addressed the audience in his usual animated 
and thrilling manner. The contributions and pledges of the 
previous day were swelled to 81,885 30. 

The following resolution was then presented and eloquent- 
ly sustained by the Rev. Henry H. Garnett, of Troy, N. Y. 

Resolved, That the cause of genuine abolitionism is destined ulti- 
mately to triumph universally, inasmuch as it has for its foundation 
love towards mankind, reason and liberty. 

The speeches throughout were listened to with much ap- 
parent interest by a large and respectable audience, which 
continued to increase from the beginning. 

The " Liberty Banner," presented by the Mass. Female 
Emancipation Society, and won by the anti-slavery voters of 
Berkley, was then exhibited by Mr. Torrey, of Boston ; after 
which the meeting was closed with prayer by Rev. Elon 
Galusha, of Perry, N. Y. 

Wm. B. Dodge, Pres.pro. tern. 

J. W. Alden, Rec. Sec. 

At a meeting of Managers, Wednesday, 9 o'clock, A. M., 
the following gentlemen were elected the Executive Com- 
mittee for the year. 

Josiah Brackett, Nathaniel Colver, D. S. King, E. Wright, 
Jr., H. M. Chamberlain, John E. Fuller, Thomas Gould, 
John Gove, Charles Tappan, B. H. Barnes, Nathaniel Rod- 
gers, Timothy Gilbert, J. C. Beman, C. T. Torrey, S. G. 
Shipley, Oliver Smith. 



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